403 EEPORT — 1873. 



supposed possible tliat some parts of the cometary substance, repelled from 

 their proper orbits by the sun in the form of the tail and other luminous 

 appendages emitted by the comets near their perihelion passages, may have 

 extended to such a distance iu their orbit-planes as to intersect the orbit of 

 the earth. It is knov,Ti that substance repelled in this manner from the 

 comet, if it consists of materials capable of finally gravitating towards the 

 sun, -win describe closed orbits round it, and might thus periodically produce 

 the appearance of a corresponding meteor-shower. For the purpose of an 

 approximate comparison with the known meteor-showers, the repelled par- 

 ticles may be assumed to move in orbits which differ little from those of 

 their derivative comets, excepting iu having a larger perihelion distance. 



In order to complete and facilitate, as far as possible, the comparison of 

 meteor-streams with the orbits of known comets, lists of observed radiant- 

 points of meteor-showers continue to be compiled and recorded by observers, 

 an important contribution for that purpose dui'ing the jiast year being the 

 " Catalogue of Observed Eadiant-points " obtained by Captain G. L. Tupmau 

 from his observations of shooting-stars made in the Mediterranean during the 

 years 1869-71*. This list contains the places of 102 distinct radiant-points, 

 independently determined, and for the most part confirming the results 

 presented in the earlier catalogues of other observers. Thus, iu about sixty 

 cases, the same showers appear to have been recorded by Dr. Schmidt f at 

 Athens ; and the agreements with the general list of radiant-points for the 

 northern hemisphere, exclusive of Dr. Schmidt's results (sec the last Report), 

 compiled by Mr. Greg are equally numerous. Cajjtain Tupman regards 

 fifty-eight of the meteor-showers described iu his list as identical, and 

 twenty-one others as fairly in accordance with those of other observers ; of the 

 remaining twenty-three positions, nearly the whole may be regarded as well 

 determined and as probably true radiant-points. Among the brightest 

 showers and the most conspicuous radiant-points were remarkable displays 

 of about fifteen or twenty shooting-stars per hour on the nights of April 30th 

 and May 2nd, 1870, from the direction of a point at R. A. 325°, S. Decl. 3°; 

 and showers of less abundance on March 7th, September 8-10 and 13-15, and 

 October 5-10, 1869, and November 1-9, 1869 and 1872 : the last was the 

 well-known shower from Taurus in the eaj'ly part of November ; and a good 

 average position of its apparently double radiant-point in about R. A. 53°, 

 N. Decl. 12°, and R. A. 57°, N. Decl. 20°, was obtained by several wcU- 

 agreeing observations on successive nights. 



The following corrected Tabic of radiant-points, compiled and published by 

 Dr. Ileis in April 1867 (' Astronomische Nachrichten,' No. 1642), was 

 included by Mr. Greg in his general list of radiant-points contained iu the 

 last volume of these Reports. In a future continuation of that list it wUl 

 be attempted to condense and to add to it a similar reproduction of the new 

 materials aff'orded by the two ample catalogues of Dr. Schmidt and Captain 

 Tupman, of which no comparison has yet been included in its collection. A 

 suitable analysis of their contents wiU thus complete the discussion of all the 

 known radiant-points of shooting-stars of which published or private informa- 

 tion has hitherto been obtained by the Committee. It is proposed to exhibit 

 the results of this examination on maps of a special kind, adapted to assist 

 observers in recognizing immediately the particular radiant -points or showers 

 to which any observed meteor-tracks might correspond, and thus to enable 



* Monthly Notices of tlie Eoyal Astronomical Society for March, 1873, vol. xxsiii. p. 208. 

 t Tn his Catalogue of Eadiaiit-jiointsi for sucoesf-ive months of the year, ' Astronomiscbe 

 Isaebricliten,' Ko. ] 7.'>0. 



