102 REPORT— 1872. 



lO*" 20™ a meteor of fourth magnitude was seen, and at 10'' 21"" a sudden out- 

 burst of several bright varicoloured meteors made its appearance in all parts, 

 four or five shooting-stars being visible in the space of an eye-grasp, so that 

 it was impossible to I'ecord the particulars of more than one or two members 

 of this group. Two of them noted by Mr. Wood were brighter than first- 

 magnitude stars, leaving streaks, apparently not conformable to the usual 

 radiant-point of the January meteor-shower, but rather diverging in 

 nearly parallel courses from the radiant A, ^ in Cassiopeia, or one of them 

 possibly from the radiant NG in that neighbourhood. This burst of shooting- 

 stars gradually subsided, and meteors as bright as first- and second-magnitude 

 stars continued to succeed each other at short intervals until 10'' 49"", when 

 intervals of meteoric quiescence, unbroken by the ajjpearance of any shooting- 

 star for 10'", Hr"", and 20'", succeeded each other ; and the last meteors seen 

 during the watch were recorded at 10'' 59'" and 11'' 13'" p.m. Among twelve 

 meteors registered by Mr. Wood during the half hour between 10'' 20'" and 

 10'' 50'", two were as bright as, and five brighter than, first-magnitude stars, 

 and five left luminous streaks that remained visible for two or three seconds 

 on their course. In colour they were mostly blue, white, or yellow ; and the 

 duration of th'eir flight was generally from one second to about one second and 

 a half. Projected upon a map, the ajiparent courses appear to diverge from a 

 centre between the last stars in the tail of Ursa Major and a Draconis, several 

 of their visible tracks having been noted in or near the constellation Ursa 

 Major ; but many scattered meteors were observed ; and in the following 

 remarks on the shower Mr. Wood assigns various radiant-points to the prin- 

 cipal meteors, whose directions he had projected and compared together upon 

 the maps. 



" Meteoric shoiver of Jannarif 2nd, 1872. — A fine shower of bright meteors, 

 at the rate of twenty per hour for one observer, radiating in the proportion 

 of 42 per cent, from K, [radiant of the annual shower], 



22 „ from MG, 



36 ,, distributed over the radiants A, ^, A,g, NG, DG.^, KG. 



" Meteors of slow apparent speed, train-bearing, and varicoloured. The 

 time of maximum, the duration, and intensity of the shower could not be 

 ascertained in consequence of clouds supervening on the succeeding night. 

 The foregoing meteors were probablj- only a fragment of the shower." 



A description of the shower by Mr. .J. Morton, at Eccles, near Manchester, 

 was communicated to the Committee by Mr. W. F. Denning. It was first 

 noticed at 8'' 40"' p.m. on the 2nd, the sky being then very clear, but after- 

 wards becoming partially obscured by clouds. One bright meteor, leaving a 

 train of sparks, and five smaller ones were seen before 9 o'clock ; and eight 

 meteors of some brightness from that time until 10*" 23"' p.m. Six of the 

 fourteen meteors noted were as bright as second, and one was as bright as a 

 first-magnitude star. 



At Glasgow the sky was so hazy on the night of the 2nd, between 

 10'' 55'" and ll*" 20™ p.m., that Jupiter and the brightest fixed stars only 

 were visible ; but during the remainder of a watch from 10^ to 12'' p.m. the 

 sk}' was generaUy clear, and fourteen meteors were observed in this interval 

 by Mr. U. M''Clure. The apparent paths of nine of them were drawn upon a 

 map ; and of fhese meteors four were as bright as first-magnitude stars, 

 two were as bright, and the rest fainter than staT's of the second-magni- 

 tude. All but one, of reddish colour, which passed in a short course from 

 Ursa Major across the star Pollux, appeared Avhite ; and they described area 

 of from 5° to 20^ in lengtli, in times which varied from a half to a full 



