15: 



NA TURE 



[Dec. 17, 1 1 



situated during the display from 30° east to 30° west of the 

 zenith. John M'Keague 



s.s. AciiMa, December 3 



A MAG^'I^'IC£^•T meteoric shower was visible here on No- 

 vember 27, from soon after sunset till the sky was clouded over 

 at midnight. The maximum appears to have been between 

 8 and 9 o'clock. 



At 6h. 30m. two observers watching opposite parts of the sky 

 counted 850 meteors in 5 minutes. At 7h. 50m. (5h. 30m. 

 Greenwich mean time) seven observers divided the heavens 

 among them and together counted 525 in one minute. We all 

 agreed that we had not been able to count all that we saw, so 

 that this number is probably too small. At any rate I do not 

 think the number of meteors visible between 7 and 9 p.m. was 

 at any time lessthan 500 per minute. At loh. I alone counted 

 210 in two minutes, facing the north, which was then partially 

 clouded. 



The majority were small, though quite a number were esti- 

 mated as brighter than Venus. Nearly all had trails, usually 

 bluish-while, but frequently reddish in the case of the larger 

 ones. At no time did I see a trail remain visible more than three 

 seconds after the disappearance of the meteor ; some friends 

 saw one which remained visible about five minutes, changing its 

 shape a number of times and gradually vanishing. 



I determined the radiant-point carefully by tracing back the 

 paths of a great many. I place it 2° or 3° north-west of 7 

 Andromeda;, R.A. 25" or 26°, 5 + 43° or + 44°. And three 

 times during the evening I saw meteors appear at this point, 

 grow brighter, and die away at the same place, as though 

 coming directly towards the observer. Robert H. West 



Syrian Protestant College, Beyrout, Syria, November 30 



I CAN quite confirm what Dr. Main says about the display of 

 meteors being finer in this neighbourhood than seems generally 

 to have been the case, as far as the accounts which I have seen 

 enable me to judge. My attention was not called to the falling- 

 stars until the display was past its best ; but at about 7.30 p.m. 

 I held my opera-glass steadily on one spot, and, watch in hand, 

 counted the numbers which crossed the field of the glass, and, 

 repeating this two or three times, I found that more than one 

 per second crossed the field. The exact figures were eleven 

 each ten seconds. 



I hastily set up a Coulomb's torsion electrometer, and found 

 the air highly charged with electricity, which may possibly not 

 be without interest in considering the auroral dis|3lays mentioned 

 in Nature. Arthur Wm. Waters 



Davos Dorfli, Switzerland 



The Bielid meteors were observed here last evening (Novem- 

 ber 27) in considerable numbers. I had been closely occupied 

 during the day, and had quite forgotten that they were due, so 

 that I did not look out for them immediately after dark, and 

 probably missed the maximum of the shower. On going out of 

 the house at 7.15 (Eastern Standard Time, 5h. later than Green- 

 wich) my attention was at once attracted by seeing two meteors 

 in the sky together, quickly followed by others. In walking 

 about 100 yards I counted 12. and in 10 minutes 36. Up to 

 7.45 about 100 were recorded in all ; in the next 15 minutes 

 only 3 or 4 appeared, and at 8 o'clock I discontinued the obser- 

 vations. Five or six were of the 1st magnitude ; about half of 

 the whole number were of the 2nd or 3rd, and the rest of them 

 were mostly veiy small. The colour, both of the meteors and 

 of their trains, v,a.s a\ways rt-ddis/i — never greenish like that of 

 the Leonids. The tracks were generally short, in very few cases 

 exceeding 20°, and the motion was rather slow. The position 

 of the radiant, determined largely by three nearly stationary 

 meteors, but agreeing also with results obtained by plotting 

 other meteor paths, was about 2° north-west from y Andro- 

 medae : — a, ih. 50m. ; S, 43°'5- The radiant was not a point 

 but rather a region about 4° long north and south, and 2° wide. 



C. A. Young 



Princeton, N.J., U.S.A., November 28 



The meteors were seen here till 7h. lom. , when the sky 

 became overcast. They were first noticed before it was dark, 

 ■as early as 4h. 35m. and they were then abundant, though 



smaller ones must have been hidden by the twilight. Although 

 cloudless, the night was not favourable, and below an altitude 

 of 45° there was much haze, so as to sensibly dim meteors that 

 descended below this altitude. 



•Scarcely any of the meteors had an apparent nucleus. Nearly 

 all appeared as sparks, and at first scarcely increased in size, at 

 last suddenly blazing out into a considerable number of sparks, 

 and then almost immediately disappearing, and there was an 

 absence of the usual lingering streaks. The meteors were re- 

 markably abundant, especially before 6 p.m. At 5h. 25m., 

 facing south-east, I counted 21 in ten seconds, whilst a 

 gentleman facing north-west counted 17. The number seen 

 between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. must have been at least loo per 

 minute. Though the meteors were almost constant, they were 

 spasmodic as regards numbers, for every few minutes suddenly 

 the air seemed full of them. Very few were erratic, and the 

 stream going in one direction was a conspicuous feature. Meteors 

 passing over the same path were alike as regards the length of 

 their paths, with this qualification : the smaller ones were invisible 

 sooner than those of larger size. 



The average size of the latger ones was not great, yet early 

 in the evening they were larger than those seen in 1872. The 

 largest was seen exactly at 5h. 30m. ; this passed close to a 

 Andromeda;, and it was about equal to the apparent size of 

 Venus. 



Near the point of convergence, not far from y Andromedae, 

 the paths were very short, and on the point itself there were no 

 less than five that blazed out and died away without moving, 

 three were mere points, and two were equal to Sirius in 

 apparent size ; they also disappeared at their maximum bright- 

 ness, but did not separate into sparks. 



There was evidently a second point of convergence near tj 

 Cassiopeiae, and these meteors were not as brilliant as those con- 

 verging to 7 Andromedse ; no stationary ones were, however, 

 noticed here. 



The general colour was that of ordinary gas, a few only being 

 intensely blue. Tliose nearer the horizon had a red look, but 

 this was owing to the haze, for their colour only changed when 

 passing into this haze. 



In 1872 one meteor — a mere spark — I saw between me and a 

 hill (80 feet elevation), and again to-night two others passed 

 between me and a hill. These must have fallen to the ground. 

 They were moving almost horizontally. 



The display this evening, both as regards numbers and 

 general appearance, was very similar to that of 1872 



Shirenewton Hall, Chepstow, November 27 E. J. Lowe 



P.S. — Owing to work in connection with the General Elec- 

 tion this report was unfortunately not posted on the 28th. The 

 28th was unusually clear, with an absence of clouds ; but from 

 8 p.m. till 9 p.m. I only noticed two meteors, and they came 

 from the direction of Cassiopeia. 



The expected meteoric shower was seen here between 8 and 

 S. 30 on the evening of November 27. The weather was misty 

 and the sky partly overcast. 



The stars fell in great numbers from an invisible (owing to 

 cloud obscuration) radiant-point in or near Andromeda, and 

 with a slow motion, their movement being more like that of 

 large flakes of snow falling gently through the air than that of 

 shooting-stars. Numbers fell, apparently perpendicularly ; the 

 greater part, however, took a southerly and south-westerly 

 direction, very few taking an eastern and north-east course. The 

 display was intermittent, occasionally nearly ceasing, and then 

 showering in great numbers, which it was found impossible to 

 count. About 8.30 p.m. the sky was completely overcast, and 

 drizzly rain was falling. 



The meteors were of uniform size and of the same colour — a 

 bright whitish-yellow. A few of larger size were seen, and 

 these were somewhat darker and their flight more prolonged. 



W-M. H. Lyne 



British Cemetery, Scutari, Constantinople 



With reference to Mr. Haslam's remarks (Nature, Decem- 

 ber 10, p. 128) as to the coincidence of aurorte with star-showers, 

 I believe that their combined apparitions have no meaning 

 further than that resulting from pure accident. I have seen 

 many rich star-showers without the faintest visible trace of 

 auroral manifestation, and many bright displays of aurorae have 



