A CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS, 291 



" At Ih. 10m. the finest meteor of the night was seen. It appeared near 

 the Pole-star, increasing in brilliancy as it approached Cassiopeia, and 

 vanishing near i.- and /3 Cassiopeia; with a flash of extraordinary brilliancy. 

 The train at first had a direction nearly parallel to the line of these two 

 stars, and about 15° in length. Immediately it commenced to spread, and 

 soon assumed the form of an inverted S, thus i. Then the form became 

 that of an eUipso with a hollow ellipse at each of the two foci, aU the time 

 drifting slowly towards a Andromeda. At Ih. 55m. the train was still 

 faintly visible at c Andromedae, the whole time of visibility exceeding forty- 

 five minutes. 



" At about 4h. 30m., and at 4h. 31m. two meteors left trains in the \-icinity 

 of Sirius and h, of Canis Major, each assuming the form of the Greek 12, and 

 continuing visible together for several minutes. 



" As day began to dawn the meteors, which shot down towards and below 

 Yenus, were in many cases of a bright red or crimson colour. 



" Man}^ unconformable meteors were observed during the night, and the 

 tracks of many of these corresponded to a radiant between the Pleiades and 

 the Haiades. 



" In several cases the remarkable phenomenon was noticed of a disappear- 

 ance, and almost immediate reappearance, as of a light extinguished and re- 

 kindled. 



" In general the finest meteors were scon in the north and north-west." 



The state of the weather in England on the night of the 13-14:th of 

 November was not in general favourable to observations of the shower^ 

 Yet a clear condition of the skj' beginning to prevail at Glasgow at 3h. 

 30m. A.M., and being finally established at 4h. 30m. a.m., a perfect view of 

 the principal portion of the display was obtained by Prof. Grant. The 

 meteors resembled those of the 14th of November, 1866, in three or four 

 instances leaving streaks which remained visible for two or three minutes 

 after the disappearance of the meteor. Their colour was white, in some in- 

 stances with a slight tinge of red, and the colour of the streaks was less 

 inclined to green than in the former shower. Three or four of the meteors 

 far exceeded -Jupiter in brightness, but not equalling the planet Yeni;s, which 

 shone at the same time with intense brilliancy in the east. Their rate of 

 frequency appearing to increase, their number observed in successive minutes 

 was recorded fr&m 4h. 56m. a.m. until 6h. 5ra. a.m., when 256 meteors had 

 been counted by one observer. The number really visible during the in- 

 terval of one hour and ten minutes was in all probability three times as great 

 as this, or as many as seven or eight hundred. The time of greatest fre- 

 quency was observed at 5h. 15m. a.m., the number afterwards diminishing 

 considerably during the continuance of the observations. In the successive 

 intervals of ten minutes, 



Ending at . . 5h. 6m. 16m. 26m. 30m. 46m. 56m. 6h, 6m. 



'o 



There were 1 _,, ^, ^r. ..r, .-.^. r> i r.^ .^^« 



counted | '^ ^"^ ^ '^^ ^^ ^"^ ^^ ^^^^ meteors. 



Shortly after six o'clock, while the shower was still active, although the 

 period of its greatest intensity seemed to have already passed, the sky became 

 cloudy, and no further observations could be made. (Monthly Notices of the 

 lloyal Astronomical Society for December 11th, 1S6S, vol. xxix. p. 60*.) 



At the Koyal Obseiwatory, Greenwich, the sky was densely overcast, on the 



* Tlie same IVunibor of the 'Monthly Xntices' (p. fi2) contains a memorandum on the 

 shower by Prof. D. Kirkwood, of Blooniiugfon, Indiana, in the United States. The 

 number counted in fih. 31m. was 3280; one ch?erver counting 780 in Hi. lOin., cndinn- 

 nt (5h. llni. a.m. The maximum was at about 3b. 30ui. a..m. 



