A CATALCrtSUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 395 



the ' Monthly Notices ' of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. xxvii. p. 19 *, 

 of which this and the following paragraphs contain the original descriptions. 



At London. — Mr. T. Crumplen and Mr. S. H. Wix report : — '• Watching 

 carefully at 12'' 4.5™ to l** 15™, and indeed at other times throughout the 

 morning, we came to the conclusion that the radiant was in the space con- 

 tained between the stars ^, x, ^, e Leonis, at a spot indicated on the Chart of 

 the British Association as E. A. 147°, N. Decl. 24°. This was arrived at by 

 observing meteors in the immediate neighbourhood of those stars, some of 

 them coming almost from the very point itself, and visible only as enlarged 

 stars with scarcely any perceptible train." 



Eeport of H. M'^Leod : — " I only noticed four meteors from other points ; 

 but the principal radiant-point was most clearly 

 defined. ^^ g 



" The figure represents the six stars in Leo ; and /* •.^ 

 the radiant-point appeared to me to be as near as 

 possible to the intersection of lines joining the 

 opposite stars of the trapezium. One very bright •' \ ®V 



one appeared about 2'> IS^ a.m., just to the right *^ * g 



of the radiant-point, and burst, leaving a green / oi 



spot which lasted about half a minute." 



At Wimbledon. — -Mr. F. C. Penrose states that " the origin or radiant-point 

 in Leo was clearly between -/ and e ; but I 

 question if a single point gives a satisfactory 

 origin, and I submit that a circle of about 3° 

 in diameter is more consistent with the direc- 

 tion of the paths of the meteors, as P in the 

 figure." 



At Hawlhurst. — .Sir John Herschcl laid 

 down the position of the radiant-point with 

 great precision on Bode's chart of the constel- 

 lation Leo on the morning of the 14tli of 'No- 

 vember, and found its " longitude for 1866| 

 (allowing 55' for precession since 1801, the 

 epoch of the chart) to be 142° 20', and its lati- 

 tude 10° 15' North." (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 

 vol. xxvii. p. 20.) 



At Freshwater, Isle of Wight.— Mr. Pritchard, the President of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society, in a letter to Mr. Herschel states that on the 14th of 

 November he marked the radiant-point thus, {© Nov. 13, 1866}, " at x Leonis 

 (the least bit above it). I should say that it was too plain to admit mistake 

 to those who looked long enough." 



At Clifton, Somersetshire.— In a letter to ' The Times ' (of November 

 15th) Mr. G. F. Burder writes:— " It was especially interesting to watch the 

 meteors which took their origin in the immediate neighbourhood of the centre 

 from which they all radiated. With the aid of these, it was easy to deter- 

 mine with exactness the radiant-point. This spot was in a line between y 

 and n Leonis, about 3° from the former, and 5.i° from the latter star." 



At Birmingham.— m-. Wood's report, under'the head of General Remarks, 



* Two errata in that paper require correction. The positions there e.rchcded from the 

 &ial average are Nos. 6, 10, 11, and not Nos. 9, 10, 11, as stated. The final average in 

 the paper is tlie arMmetical mean of the remaining twelve positions in E. A and de-l^- 

 nation, giving equal tveight to every point; and not, a,3 there stated, the centre of a small 

 circular area containing t^em. — A. S. H. 



