OBSERA'ATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 



87 



three seconds. At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the meteor, of pale- 

 green colour, leaving a bnght streak visible for fourteen seconds, moved 

 in about two seconds from i Cassiopeice across /3 Cephei, almost to o Lyree. 

 The other two bright meteors seen at Hawkhurst on the 12th were scarcely 

 inferior in brightness to this one. That which appeared at 11'' 16'" passed 

 from r Pegasi to a point midway between y Piscium and H Aquarii, changing 

 from blue to yellow colour as it increased, and leaving a bright streak for a 

 few seconds on its course. The second was observed at ll"* 34"", passing in 

 fully one and a half second over 30° or 40° of arc from the star /3 Andromedoe, 

 along a line directed from ^ Cassiopeias and inclined about 50° to the horizon. 

 It left a bright streak for some seconds on its course, which was broken into 

 two, or had two maxima of brightness at two different points of its length. 

 The apparent paths of these two meteors were : — 



R. A. N. Decl. R. A. N. Decl. 



August 12..1P16"> 2 . Began at 348° + 22°. Ended at 343°+ 6° 



ll" 34"= 2 • 



15 +35 



13 



+ 161 



Cassio-^i 



eia 



The trains of most of the meteors seen at Hawkhurst were bluish and 

 rather faint, except when seen foreshortened. They sometimes distinctly 

 spread out after the star had disappeared, and grew gauze-like. They 

 rarely resembled the golden-yellow dotted lines which have sometimes been 

 seen to mark the track of bright meteors in former August showers. 



Position of the Badiant-point. 



At Bristol, on the evening of the 10th, Mr. W. F. Denning " saw several 

 small meteors which, from their various paths, must have been in close 

 proximity to a radiant-point which is 

 undoubtedly situated at R. A. 2^ 30" « 



(37^°), N. Decl. 58° 30'. This is /3 



about 31° S.W. of the sword-handle of 

 Perseus," and between ^ Persei and B 

 Camelopardi. I saw several small 

 meteors whose paths were extremely 

 short, that came exactly from the 

 place I have indicated. The annexed 

 is a rough delineation of a few of the 

 meteors' paths that were observed in 

 the neighbourhood of this radiant- 

 point in Camelopardalus. There were 

 many other meteors whose paths were 

 conformable to B Camelopardi ; and 

 there appears no doubt as to this being 

 the radiant-point, or rather the prin- 

 cipal one." 



. London, August 10th. — On this 

 evening the radiant-point appeared to 

 Mr. Crumplcn to be for most of the 

 meteors near y Persei; but another 

 radiant-point higher up in the sky 

 was quite apparent for some of them. 

 " In the case of every meteor, whether H, 



mapped or counted, I ran my eye 

 back along the track to determine, if possible, the true radiant-point. It 





Came 1 0- 

 pardttlxis 



to 



*tf 



