OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 349 
tive of the shower in modern meteor-lists, Professor Kirkwood selects the 
general shower Q,, , in Greg’s list of 1867, diverging at the end of April and 
in May from the direction of Hercules (3 Herculis) or Corona, some indica- 
tions of that shower having a 12- or 13-year period being also noted in the 
meteor-list. In connexion with the very exact day of its periodical returns 
or of its present date on the 29th of April, Professor Kirkwood points out a 
resemblance between the supposed meteor-ring and the computed orbit of 
the comet B.c. 136, passing very near the earth’s orbit and having its nodal 
point coincident with that date*. The radiant-point of meteor-particles from 
the comet at the earth’s encounter with it at this node would, however, be 
in R.A. 320°, 8. Decl. 28°*; and the star-shower that they would produce 
would only rise above the horizon at daybreak, having been invisible through- 
out the night, if the elements of the comet’s orbit are correct. Another 
comet, that of 1006, similar, apparently, in many respects to that of .c. 136, 
whose orbit is roughly assigned by Pingré as having resembled, from the 
comet’s course, the orbit of Halley’s comet, but with a different line of nodes, 
agrees in that respect, and in passing near the earth’s orbit, with the April and 
May meteor-stream. As far as such imperfect descriptions of these comets 
as have been preserved can offer any basement for comparison, the comets of 
B.c. 136 and a.p. 1006 might be regarded as (except in the node and peri- 
helion distance) resembling very nearly that of Halley’s comet. Comets with 
such a path as Halley’s comet have (for the present epoch) a date of closest 
approach to the earth’s orbit on May 4th, with a radiant-point at about R.A. 
337°, Decl. 0°. In the catalogue of meteors and meteor-showers observed 
by Captain Tupman, the appearance of bright star-showers on each of the 
nights from April 29th to May 3rd, in the years 1870-71, is recorded as the 
principal display of shooting-stars (omitting those of August and November) 
included in his three-years’ watch, and the position of their radiant-point 
(first visible above the horizon at about 1 a.m.) is very exactly fixed at 
R.A. 326°, 8. Decl. 29-5. The apparent radiant-centre of this special shower 
differs only ten or twelve degrees from that of Halley’s comet; and the near 
coincidence of the time of its appearance with the date of the earth’s closest 
proximity to the orbit of Halley’s comet renders the possible identity of this 
meteor-stream with some dismembered fragments of the latter comet a very 
suggestive hypothesis, apparently deserving of more complete investigation. 
As a first trial or criterion of the degree of frequency of such accordances 
between the apparent paths of meteor-streams and the computed elements 
of comet-orbits, as enumerated in a list (compiled chiefly, with later additions, 
from that in Hind’s work on ‘ Comets’) in the latest editions of Chambers’s 
‘ Handbook of Astronomy,’ approximate calculations of the cometary radiant- 
points were made in those cases where the comets’ paths approach (especially 
on the inside) to no great distance from the orbit of the earth. An attempt was 
also made to identify some of the radiant-points thus obtained with those 
of meteor-showers contained in general and in special meteor-lists. The 
number of approximate, though seldom very close, agreements exceeded the 
Committee’s expectations; and however incomplete, and from since ascertained 
sources of error in some cases inaccuratey, the list is acknowledged in its 
* [These calculations relate to the year of the comet’s appearance. But for the present 
time, allowing for the motion of the equinox between the years B.c. 136 and A.p. 1875, 
the nodal date and the cometary radiant-point (uninfluenced by perturbations) would be 
about on May 28th, and at R.A. 350°, 8. Decl. 18°.—A. S. H.] 
t All great errors of this kind, it is believed, have now been removed. (Note, 1875.) 
