OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 93 



half on the mornings of the 21st and 22nd, and another on the morning of 

 the 23rd] in the list belong to SchiaparcUi's liadiant No. 36 *, and those 

 marked C [two meteors noted on the last morning of the watch] to his 

 No. 37 f. Those marked B [five meteors seen on the mornings of the first 

 two nights] have a radiant-point in R. A. 113°, N. Decl. -58° J ; but, owing 

 to the remarkable swiftness of these meteors, this point can be only approxi- 

 mate. I make the radiant-point of A at R. A. 97°, N. Decl. 15°, taking the 

 observations of all three nights. The meteors marked U were unconform- 

 able to all these showers. It will be seen that only one of these appeared in 

 any of the mornings, and no unconformable ones in the evenings. 



"The hourly rate of frequency of meteors of all- kinds, at that time of 

 morning at which thej were most numerous, was on the 20th [morning of 

 the 21st] 19, on the 21st 12, on the 22nd 8." 



None of the shooting-stars observed at Hawkhurst, or at the Royal Obser- 

 vatory, Greenwich, on the evenings of the 14th and 18th of October were 

 directed from the radiant-point in Orion ; but on the night of the 21st the 

 tracks of eleven meteors from this radiant-point were mapped at Hawkhurst 

 between the hours of 11*" 30"" and 13'' 30"', and an approximate position of 

 the radiant-point was obtained. This appeared to be between the stars ■}, v 

 Geminorum and v Orionis. A 

 small meteor, almost instanta- 

 neous, near this point described ^ 



a short path, which appeared ^ 



curved towards Castor and Pol- /? a * Gemini 



lux, and which lay in the sky ' 

 like a bent whip (see the sketch) • 



between y Geminorum and X • 



Tauri, at about R. A. 90°, N. © 1:=—-^ & « 



Decl. 20°. The last meteor of % T ^V^ ^ . 



the shower seen at Hawkhurst v 



on this night was directed from 



the point C, between Castor (ir'ion 



and Pollux, regarded by Mr. ^ 



Backhouse as having furnished ^•v 



a few meteors on the morning A 



ofthe23rdof October, at Sun- • 



derland, during his observations of this shower. 



With regard to the appearance of the October meteors at Birmingham, 

 Mr. Wood communicated to the Committee the following results of his obser- 

 vations of the shower in the past and in previous years : — 



Luminous Meteors. 

 Birmingham. Epoch 19th October. W. H. Wood. 



The meteoric shower of the above epoch has not been visible from this 

 station since 1868; and the following are the unpublished results of those 



» Brit. Assoc. Eeport for 1870, p. 98.— Oct. 21. Near y Geminorum, at E. A. 96°, 

 N. Decl. 13°. Apparently identical with the radiant O, near v Orionis, described in 

 previous Eeports, of the meteor-shower on October 18-21. 



t Ibid. Between Castor and Pollux, on October 21-25. About 17° or 18° from 

 SchiaparcUi's position of the former radiant-point. 



X Connected, apparently, wtli the radiants Fj,^ [Report for 1868, p. 403], from the 

 middle of September to the latter end of November^ at R. A. 83°, N. Decl. 50°, near a, /3, 

 and h Aurigae. 



