384 REPORT—1868. 
the constellations in the neighbourhood of Cassiopeia, to determine the exact 
position of the radiant-point. 
“The night was remarkably clear; and many meteors were seen before be- 
ginning to record them. There were no large meteors ; and none burst. The 
trains were in general very short, if not merely optical illusions*. When a 
nucleus was visible it usually passed beyond the end of the train, being extin- 
guished suddenly, apparently without previous diminution of size. Two meteors 
described curves—the first an open curve, and the second thus, pp 
(see fig., no. 6). A similar meteor to the last was observed on the 21st of 
October, 1866, when a meteor traced a curve round #3 Aurige thus, 
No meteors came from the radiant that I found last year in Pisces. (49h 
«‘ Attention was chiefly confined to determining the position of 
the radiant-point from paths of meteors chiefly close to Cassiopeia. The 
point appears to be as nearly as 
possible at R.A.2" 16™, N. P. D. 
31°. 
«The meteors always came 
several at a time, and then a 
pause. Those that came toge- 
ther were usually in the same 
part of the heavens.” The fol- 
lowing numbers of meteors were 
counted in the successive quar- 
ters of an hour ending at— 
Date and Hour, 1868, 10th (p.m.), 11. 11th (a4.m.), 12h. jh, 
August gm 24m 39m 54m gm 24m ggm 54m jj» 
Number of conformable : FB rR 
A Ae } Bile pos? 8 3. 730, eae 6 
Total number of conformable meteors ...............6++ 47 Average hourly number, 20. 
Number of erratic meteors .........cceccsccsecciecveessseos 6 
Total number seen in 25 16™...............00. 53 
“On the night of the 11th—-12th the sky was clear after half-past 11, but 
the moon too bright for observations after 1 o’clock. The paths were very 
short, and only five were near enough to the radiant to be mapped (repre- 
sented by dotted lines in the figure, 1. to v.). These are quite discordant ; 
but it appears that the radiant of yesterday is not that of to-day, A being 
the position of yesterday’s and B about that of to-day’s. Yesterday it was 
remarkable how much truer to the radiant-point the meteors were than last 
year+; to-day seven, at the very most, came from about A, nearly all 
whose directions I could produce backwards coming from nearer to B. 
“Two meteors on this night appeared to pass beyond their trains with 
undiminished brilliancy, till they were suddenly extinguished; they were, 
however, too rapid and short-lived for me to be perfectly certain about it.” 
One such meteor was observed at 12" 33"; the train of another meteor, which — 
appeared at 12" 37", and which was very bright, appeared to be broken in 
the middle. The streak only lasted half a second. 
The following numbers of the meteors were counted in the successive 
quarters of an hour ending at— 
* The brightness of the moonlight may have diminished, in some degree, the apparent 
brightness and duration of the streaks. 
+ In the figure, ais the position of the radiant for 1867, Aug. 10—at R. A, 24 43m, — 
N.P.D. 29° 30’ 
