Dec. 3, 1885] 



NATURE 



103 



P.S. — Novettiber 28. — On looking at the stars in a dear 

 sky to-night, I find that those described above as having 

 been just visible near Cassiopeia were not chief stars of 

 the Square of Pegasus, as supposed, but bright stars in 

 Cygnus and Cepheus ! Instead of crossing Honores, 

 therefore, the chief meteor-flights of the stream observed 

 were shooting from the true Eiela radiant-point near 

 r Andromeda;, past Cassiopeia into Cepheus. Other 

 stragglers there certainly were, whose general radiation 

 from Cassiopeia could not be thus accounted for. Just 

 similar variations of direction, however, were common 

 among a rather large proportion of the " Andromedes " 

 in the great shower of November 27, 1872, which had 

 rather an average than a very sharply marked radiant- 

 point in Andromeda. There appears no reason to doubt, 

 therefore, that on this occasion also the shower proceeded 

 from the same prevailing centre of divergence. 



From many observers' descriptions of it here, the 

 present shower would seem to have been hardly, if at all, 

 inferior in any respect — of duration, of brightness and 

 multitude of its meteors, or of persistency in the light- 

 streaks left upon their tracks — to the great and well- 

 remembered display of the Biela's comet meteor-shower 

 in November, 1S72. 



As you may be desirous to make known any observa- 

 tions respecting the meteor-shower of the 27th inst., I 

 beg to furnish you with those noticed by myself 



At sunset the sky was overcast, but happily at 6.30 

 p.m. the clouds dispersed, when the phenomenon was 

 seen here in full splendour ; the heavens were alive 

 with the meteors making their rapid appearance and 

 extinction. 



My attention was attracted chiefly to the constella- 

 tions of Cassiopeia, Andromeda, and towards Perseus, 

 from whence the most brilliant portion of the shower 

 was in operation, and from that locality the most con- 

 spicuous meteors shot forth. Selecting the most remark- 

 able out of the numerous luminous trains for their length 

 of traverse, and conceiving the line of direction to be 

 thrown backwards, the convergence of these trains con- 

 centrated towards a point in Andromeda, in accordance 

 with the position of the radiant-point as predicted in the 

 Dun Echt Observatory Circular. 



The paths taken by the above meteors were, in many 

 cases, directed towards the southern horizon, and several 

 towards the Pleiades in the east, from the radiant-point ; 

 others flitted away to every point of the compass, ex- 

 hibiting longer or shorter trains during their ephemeral 

 existence. 



The general illuminating effect produced by the shower 

 was appreciable, but it was not very powerful ; and with 

 regard to the colours which were exhibited in the lumin- 

 ous trains, my views combined with the opinions derived 

 from other observers coincide — that the colour aspect 

 of these transient illuminants varied apparently between 

 golden and very pale-green tints. 



But with reference to the zenith and its surrounding 

 region, it was noticeable there that the conditions of the 

 meteors had other characteristics, inasmuch as they 

 were almost devoid of path or connection with any radiant- 

 point, they were remarkably numerous, a great propor- 

 tion of them exhibited no more than feeble flashes or 

 scintillations of white light, the display was maintained 

 with great rapidity and continuously. 



It was also noticed that an erratic meteor was seen 

 occasionally taking an independent course of considerable 

 length, about 45' of arc, sometimes at low elevation, 

 making an acute angle with the horizon. 



About 7.15 p.m. clouds obscured the sky for the night, 

 so I did not see either the beginning or the termination 

 of this interesting phenomenon. 



Comparing the great display of meteors which I ob- 

 served in November, 1S66, it was in all respects more 



magnificent than this recent shower. I could not on this 

 occasion define any head or nucleus to any of the lumin- 

 ous trains, but this feature was remarkable in the large 

 meteors of 1866. 



As a single observer, it was impracticable for me to at- 

 tempt any enumeration of the enormous number of meteors, 

 and to observe the prominent features of the phenomenon 

 at the same time. At midnight it was blowing a strong 

 gale from the south-west ; thick weather, with a mild 

 temperature of 53^ 



Erasmus Ommanney 



Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, November 29 



Thinking, from the character of the weather on the 

 night of the 27th^ that opportunities of seeing the late 

 splendid display of meteors may have been extremely 

 local, I have taken the liberty of forwarding my notes of 

 them as I saw them here from between a little before 

 6 p.m. until 7.35 p.m. How long the shower had been 

 going on before (attracted by the cries of some passing 

 boys) I looked out, I cannot say, but just before six 

 when I did so, the sky was covered in many places with 

 a thin haze, through which the larger stars and planets 

 were looking greasy, as sailors say, while in nearly every 

 direction meteors were gliding and bursting from a point 

 a little to the eastward of the zenith toward the horizon ; 

 the meteors varying in brightness from that of the planet 

 Venus to the faintest streaks of light. The larger ones 

 were very like pale inverted rockets, having trains of many 

 degrees in length, and often prismatic in colour ; that is, 

 near the head the light of the train was bluish, blending 

 from green to yellow, followed by rose or crimson sparks. 

 In many cases this train was visible for quite thirty 

 seconds after the star was burnt out, first as a bar of 

 warmish dusky light, and often becoming curved, as 

 though by wind, as it faded awa)'. 



The silence of the display was almost oppressive, as 

 one expected each moment to hear the bang of fireworks. 

 During most of the time masses of luminous-looking 

 vapour floated slowly across the sky. Some of the 

 meteors seemed to burst end on, right over head, and- 

 though, being foreshortened, these left no train, yet they 

 were among the brightest. I noted a considerable varia- 

 tion in the speed of the meteors, and am inclined to think 

 that those which appeared farthest off moved slowest. It 

 was next to impossible to say in which direction the star 

 rain was thickest, for just as one was trying to make up 

 one's mind upon this point, a troop of stars from an 

 unexpected part of the sky would appear. Other obser- 

 vers maybe able to speak more positively than I can upon 

 this subject ; but my impression, as well as that of those 

 who saw them with nie, was that they streamed down in 

 groups of two, three, and four toward almost every point 

 of the compass. About 7.20 p m. the number seemed to 

 become rather less, and at 7.35 this was markedly the 

 case, though they were quite frequent enough then to 

 have attracted attention any other night. Shortly after 

 7.35 the sky here became overcast by a storm-cloud, and 

 it has remained so ever since, blowing a hard gale at 

 S.S.W. Robert Leslie 



Moira Place, Southampton, November 28 



A BRILLIANT display of the Andromedes was seen here 

 on the night of November 27 from about 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., 

 after which time the sky was clouded over. During a 

 walk often minutes (from 6.20 to 6.30), facing the north- 

 west, I counted 1 50 meteors within that half of the visible 

 heavens ; and as they appeared to be nearly if not quite 

 as numerous in the other half their total number would 

 not be less than 1500 per hour. The radiant point was 

 almost directly overhead. The meteors varied greatly in 

 size, many being very small and faint. The larger ones 

 left bright trails of a white or bluish colour. I observed 

 one only in an opposite direction, and none with curved 

 or zigzag paths. The shower was less grand than that of 



