OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 341 
Meteors were less frequent on the 10th than on the two following nights ; 
and they were visible in greatest numbers towards midnight on the night of 
the 11th, when the number mapped by Mr. Clark was nearly thirty in an 
hour. A greater number of meteor-tracks was recorded at Birmingham by 
Mr. Weod on the night of the 12th than on the 11th; and the number of 
bright meteors on the latter was also greater than on the former night ; but 
a part only of the shooting-stars observed diverged from Gemini, the rest 
proceeding from six or seven other radiant-points more or less certainly 
included in Mr. Greg’s general list. The percentage number of Geminids 
mapped is between forty and seventy in the different accounts, Mr. Clark’s 
observations giving fifty-nine. Of the remaining shooting-stars mapped by 
Mr. Clark on the nights of the 10th and 11th, thirteen, or 20 per cent., pro- 
ceeded with so much precision from an apparently new radiant-point at 
R.A. 57°, N. Decl. 6°, that the apparent courses of five of them prolonged 
backwards passed within one degree, and those of six others within two 
degrees of this point. The radiant-area in Gemini extended, according to 
Mr. Clark’s description, from Greg’s*radiant G, near 6 Geminorum, to Heis’s. 
radiant M,, a little north of a Geminorum. Mr. Wood assigns to it a 
position extending from @ to a Geminorum, and Mr, Greg a region of some 
width in Telescopium. 
The following numbers of meteors and hourly averages were recorded by 
the principal observers of the shower during the half hours ending at :— 
December 10th, p.w. | December 11th, r.o. December 12th, p.m. | Total nos. 
10®30™ 11» 112 30™ 12410 30™ 11> 11530™ 125105 30™ 115 11530™ 12" | mapped. 
. E. Clark...... 6 So Owe tae oD Sipe UR akon aunaiae aca “ail 2 
ourly average 12 Monee ees Or ae Oe hep | nae 
| H. Waller...| 4* pA OVP. ape > bt 6 4 37 
Seemecrarn LAPS LO mehiws wie iionelae 10d eet Th) 88 eos 505 
SHEN ood...| <... el Ase, etd 25 6 8 | se By lal 12ileee 
ourly average] ... noel aad er Ie Se eG LO} pelt 2 | Sc 
The percentage numbers of meteors of different brightnesses seen during 
the whole watch by the same observers were found to be as follows :— 
As bright as Jupiter, Sirius, Ist, 2nd, 38rd, 4th, 5th magnitude stars. 
od: Hy Olark.../:...... 5 5 14 «627° 16—i—‘80 
Me EbiWaller;:é:.....< 2 a 18 40 33 eek si: 
Vee Es WOOd ss. 2.20. wu 15 13 30 37 (8rd mag. and under). 
Most of the bright meteors of the shower were Geminids ; but some bright 
ones proceeded from the auxiliary radiant-points, of which several appear to 
have been contemporaneously active with the principal one of the display. 
Owing to cloudy weather on the first two nights of January last, no 
observations of the January meteor-shower in the present year could be 
obtained. A watch for shower-meteors was, however, resumed on the annual _ 
date of the 19th to 21st of April, and the appearances of a few Lyraids of 
this annual meteoric shower were placed on record. Although the light of 
the full moon, and at some stations cloudy weather, impeded observations, 
the results of Mr. Wood’s watch at Birmingham, and of Mr. Backhouse’s 
view of the shower at Sunderland, sufficiently determine the general character 
* In 20 minutes. + In 10 minutes. 
¢ From 12" to 12"15™, six meteors mapped ; hourly average 24. 
~ § In 15 minutes. || From 12" to 1215", four meteors mapped; hourly ayerage 16. 
