58 REPORT — 1872. 



recorded both at the Eoyal Observatory, Greenwich, and by the observers for 

 the British Association, the heights of twenty meteors of the shower visible 

 on the different nights of its reappearance were calculated, and several other 

 meteors were identified as having been doubly observed whose real paths have 

 not yet been computed. The position of the radiant-point of the shower * was 

 found to be, as recently pointed out by Mr. Hind in a letter in ' The Times ' of 

 August 8th, more northerly tban hitherto, at a point in R. A. 35°, N. Decl. 59°, 

 three or four degrees north-westwards from ^ Persei towards i Cassiopeios. 



A few meteors of the October shower were visible on the 19th of October 

 last ; but the sky being overcast, with stormy weather, on other nights of the 

 shower, the time and rate of frequency of their fall at the maximum intensity 

 of the shower could not be ascertained; and from the few recorded meteor- 

 tracks only a roughly approximate position of its radiant-point was obtained. 



The condition of the sky was generally little more favourable for observa- 

 tions in November and December than in October ; but on the morning of 

 the 13th of November a clear view of the Leonids was obtained both at 

 Stonyhurst College and at the Eoyal Observatory, Greenwich, while on another 

 following morning, that of the 15th of November, they were also well seen 

 by Professor Herschel at Newcastle-upon-Tyne ; and their abundance on the 

 latter date was considerably greater than that of the unconformable meteors 

 from all parts Avhich appeared at the same time with them. The distribution of 

 the November meteor-group along the ring which forms its orbit being at pre- 

 sent unknown, the watch for the return of the Leonids this year will be renewed 

 for the purpose of comparative observations of their greatest rate of frequency 

 in successive years. No accordant observations of single meteors appear to have 

 been recorded either during the October or November star-showers. 



At most of the corresponding places a clear view of the December sliooting- 

 stars was obtained on the night of the 12th, while the sky was everywhere 

 completely overcast on the 13th. Meteors appeared at the rate of ten or 

 twelve per hour for one observer from the direction of Gemini ; and the posi- 

 tion of the radiant-point in this constellation could be pretty correctly ascer- 

 tained by the meteor-tracks recorded on the night when they were principally 

 observed. This appears, as in former years, to have been near 6 Geminorum, 



On the night of the 2ud of January a favourable state of the sky permitted 

 a considerable display of the January meteors to be seen at several of the 

 corresponding stations, and to be simultaneously recorded at the Eoyal 

 Observatory, Greenwich. The star-shower continued with about equal 

 brightness until daybreak on the morning of the 3rd of January ; but a cloudy 

 sky on the night of the 3rd everywhere prevented the close or a continuation 

 of the shower from being seen. In this and the December meteor observations 

 several cxami:)les of doubly observed shooting-stars were found, of which, with 

 those of some other similar observations contained in these descriptions of the 

 meteor- showers of the past year, the heights wiU be immediately calculated. 

 The radiant-point of the January star-shower appears not to have altered its 

 place sensibly in the interval since its last principal appearance in England 

 on the 2nd of January, lS64t. 



The last meteoric shower of the past year which was successfully watched 

 for by the observers was that of April 19th, 1872, when a few conspicuous 

 meteors, radiating from the direction of Lyra, were recorded at nearly all the 

 stations, and also at the Eoyal Observatory at Greenwich, and, under the direc- 



* Which appears, from the few observations of the shower on the 9th and 10th inst. 

 (August 1S72), to have very nearly maintained the same position in the present year, 

 t See the Tolimie of these Eeports for 1864, p. 98. 



