A CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 137 



(2.) Meteoric shower of 1865, November 13th, a.m. 



Mr, W. H. Wood reports at Weston-super-Mare : — On the night of the 

 12th of November, from b^ to 8'' p.m., and again at 11'' 30™ p.m., the sky 

 ■was clear at intervals, but no meteors were seen. After midnight the sky 

 continued overcast untU the morning. On the night of the 13th, imtil l*" a.m. 

 on the morning of the 14th, the sky was partially clear, but no meteors were 

 scon. It then clouded over completely until 4'' 30'" a.m., when personal 

 watching was abandoned, no symptom of a meteoric shower having appeared 

 up to this time. From o** 30'" a.m. until sunrise the sky was clear (commu- 

 nicated), and orange -coloured meteors appeared, falling at the rate of 12 per 

 hour, from a general altitude of 25^ in the N. and N.N.W., vertically down. 



Mr. H. Holiday reports at Torquay : — On the night of the 12th of No- 

 vember, at 9'' P.M., Cassiopeia was visible through a break in the clouds. 

 The sky was afterwards examined at intervals throughout the night, and was 

 foimd constantly overcast. On the night of the 13th the sky was very cloudy, 

 and watching on this night was abandoned. 



Mr. T. Crumplcn reports at London : — " This morning [the 13thJ the sky 

 became almost cloudless at l"" 15"" a.m. There were fewer meteors than one 

 might expect to see ; but those I saw were of all magnitudes, varying from 

 Venus at its brightest to fifth-magnitude stars. The radiant in Leo came out 

 very well ; I also suspect a radiant near o Taui'i." 



Mr. George Knott thus describes the meteors on the morning of the 13th 

 of November, at Cuckfield, in Sussex (see Monthly Notices of the Man- 

 chester Lit. and Phil. Soc, Phys. and Math. Section, Dec. 7th, 1865) : — Two 

 observers watched the southern half of the sky. " Between 12'' and l** a.m. 

 we counted 39 meteors, giving an average of rather more than 0*6 per minute ; 

 the next 55 minutes added 61 to the number, giving an average of 1*1 per 

 minute. After half an hour's interval we resumed our watch at 2'' 25"" a.m., 

 and between that hour and 3'' 5"' a.m., when we ceased observing, we noted 

 55 meteors, showing that the average had risen to 1-4 per minute. The ob- 

 servations of the last 40 minutes showed very clearly that the radiant-point 

 was in the immediate vicinity of the star ^ Leonis, or perhaps between that 

 star and e and /( of the same constellation — the neighbourhood, in fact, of what 

 the Rev. C. Pritchard happily terms the " apex of the earth's u<ay." The 

 paths of a few meteors seemed to suggest a second radiant-point in the neigh- 

 bourhood of /3 Tauri, but the observed flights were too few to afford satisfac- 

 tory evidence on the point." 



Mr. K. P. Greg reports at Manchester : — " On the night of the 12th, during 

 the hour from 11'' to 12'' p.m., I saw only two meteors. It then clouded over, 

 but became quite bright again a few minutes before 1'' a.m. Between 1'' and 

 2'' A.M. I saw a considerable number, of which I mapped some 20 or 30, but 

 had not time to enter all the particulars. The radiant-point was not quite 

 a definite one, some nearer Leo Minor than Leo. Hardly any were visible, 

 except near the radiant-point ; say from Ursa Major to Canis Minor. These 

 November meteors were very phosphorescent, in fact nothing else,— even tlie 

 larger ones. I saw two from Cassiopeia, the regular radiant, as different as 

 possible in appearance. At 2'' ^.m. it clouded over." 



Observations of the same shower, by Mr. T. P. Barkas at Newcastle-upon- 

 Tyne, Mr. S. H. Miller at Wisbeach, and Mr. S. B. Kincaid at Streatham, 

 near London, wiU be found in the Catalogue of this Eeport. 



On the morning of the 13th of November, the meteoric shower was ob- 

 served at the Greenwich and Cambridge Observatories, and at Hawkhurst, 

 with a view to determining the heights and velocities of the meteors. The 



