OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS, 97 



Leo's sickle. About one half of their number left persistent streaks, which 

 sometimes appeared to grow brighter after the meteors had disappeared; and 

 I vainly endeavoured to bring them into the field of view of the direct-vision 

 prisms of a small spectroscope, the duration of the brightest streaks noted 

 scarcely ever exceeding one or two seconds. A very brilliant meteor, casting 

 around a flash like that of lightning, was seen here shortly after nine o'clock 

 on the evening of the 1 3th (and its appearance was also noted at Woodburn), 

 traversing the north-west sky. These particulars, imperfect as they were, 

 uufortunately, rendered by the cloudy weather, are the only descriptions of 

 the November star-shower which its appearance here has hitherto enabled 



me to supply. 



" A. S. Herschel." 

 " Newcastle-on-Tyne, Nov. 17." 



Meteor-shower of December 12th, 1871. — Arrangements similar to those 

 made for observing the other meteor- showers of the past year were prepared 

 by the Committee in expectation of the return of the December meteors in 

 1871. On the evenings of the 5th and 9th, and on the night of the 12th and 

 13th, Mr. T. W. Backhouse recorded eighteen shooting-stars seen at Ilkley 

 in Yorkshire and at Sunderland, one of which on the 1st, and most of those 

 seen on the latter dates, were directed very nearly from the usual radiant- 

 point in Gemini. Three of those noted on the 5th proceeded from the Radiants 

 A ,._ ,g near Cassiopeia, the appearance of which in November and Decem- 

 ber has been supposed to be connected, not improbably, with the periodical re- 

 turns of Biela's comet. Although the clouded state of the sky prevented any 

 meteors from being seen at Sunderland during the hours appointed for obser- 

 vations on the evenings of the 11th, 12th, and 13th, three meteors from 

 Gemini were seen on the evening of the 11th, and two others during a short 

 watch on the morning of the 13th, when the sky was clear ; while only three 

 meteors unconformable to the same radiant-point were recorded by Mr. Back- 

 house during the time in which these five meteors of the December star- 

 shower were observed. On the nights following the pej-iodic dates, it will be 

 seen from his report that very few meteors directed from the well-known 

 radiant-point of this annual star-shower were observed. " On the 13th 

 [morning of the 14th] I watched for 25 minutes, about IB*" and 17'' (it was 

 equal to about 9 mirrutes' watch in a cloudless sky), and I only saw one 

 meteor ; it was not a ' Geminid.' On the 14th [morning of the 15th] I 

 watched for 45 minutes in a cloudless sky between 17"^ 15™ and 18" 21°\ and 

 saw nine meteors, all in the first 26 minutes. No radiant-point was, how- 

 ever, discernible ; one was a ' Geminid,' appearing at 17'' 36™. It was of the 

 fifth magnitude, and disappeared at | (tt Leonis, 15 Sextantis)." A bright 

 meteor, described in the foregoing accounts of large meteors, directed appa- 

 rently from the radiant-point Aj^, was seen by Mr. Backhouse on the 

 evening of the last-named date. 



At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the sky was generally overcast on 

 the periodic nights, and only one small meteor, on the evening of the 12th, 

 unconformable to Gemini, was observed. 



At Hawkhurst the sky was occasionally cloudy on the evening of the 12th 

 until 11'', when it became quite clear, and a constant watch for shooting-stars 

 was kept between 10" 15™ p.m. and midnight. Thirty shooting-stars were 

 observed, of which fourteen were visible before 11 o'clock. The apparent 

 courses of twenty-six of these meteors projected iipon a map showed that 

 eight were unconformable to, and of the remaining number four appeared to 



