OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEOllS. 213 



Of the different magnitudes of brightness there were observed the follow- 

 iug numbers : — 



Apparent 



brightness... 2/. or J. Sirius. 1st mag. 2ud do. 3rd do. 4tli&5thdo. 

 Nos. of meteors 



seen 2 5 8 10 11 10 



Mr. "W. F. Denning's view of the shower on the 10th, at Bristol, is thus 

 described in a letter in the ' Astronomical Register ' (September 1874), con- 

 taining notes of his observations of the display. The night of the lOth was 

 fine and moonless. The meteors were watched almost continuously for four 

 hours, from 10" 45™ to 14'' 45™, and 281 meteors were observed. Thirty- 

 two of these were as bright or brighter than Ist-magnitude stars ; 252 were 

 Perseids, and almost all (with ver}/ few exceptions) left persistent streaks, 

 lasting, however, rarely more than about 2 seconds. On the night of the 11th, 

 although, as on the 9th, the sky was generally unfavourable for observation, 

 a watch of 10™, in a clear interval, soon after 10 o'clock, presented 12 shoot- 

 ing-stars ; and they appeared to be nearly as numerous as on the preceding 

 night. The principal radiant-centre of divergence of the Perseids was be- 

 tween B, C Camelopardi and 1^ Persei', at E. A. 39°, N. Decl. 58^° ; and other 

 radiant -centres in Cassiopeia, Pegasus, and Draco were at the same time in 

 perceptible activity during the shower. 



The nights of the 9th and 11th having generally been unsuitable for a watch 

 on account of the clouded state of the sky, it is satisfactory that at one station 

 (Mr. Corder's in Essex) a continuous enumeration of the meteors was possible 

 on the night of the 11th ; and by comparison with records on the 10th at the 

 other places of observation, it does not appear that the intensity of the display 

 had very notably diminished. It is not possible from these particulars to de- 

 termine the time of maximum of the display even approximately, although 

 in point of brightness and numbers the Perseids in August 1874 were pro- 

 bably more conspicuous on the night of the 10th than on the following night. 

 If allowance is made for the absence of the moon, the shower appears to have 

 been one of very considerable intensity, and to have presented an abundance 

 of bright meteors, but scarcely to have exceeded in this respect either of 

 those of the two preceding years, nor to have quite attained the somewhat 

 exceptional brilliancy of the August star-shower in the year 1871. 



The October Meteor-shower in 1874. — Fine nights for observing these 

 meteors occurred at Birmingham on the 18th and 19th of October, and a 

 watch for them was continued for one hour on each night by Mr. Wood. 

 Four meteors were seen and mapped between 11" and 12" on the 18th, and 9 

 meteors between 10'^ 30" and 11" 30" on the 19th, while a further watch of 

 half an hour on this latter night from ll*" 30'' to 12" was without result, no 

 more shooting-stars being visible during the continuance of the watch. The 

 meteors mapped radiated principally from and F,, ^, the two radiants of 

 the October period in Orion and Auriga, but not in sufficient numbers to 

 make the return of these showers consincuous, or to afford important deter- 

 minations of their radiant-points from the few representatives of the prin- 

 cipal October meteor-shower which were observed. On the night of the 20th 

 the sky was overcast ; and, as far as the Committee has learned, no other 

 notes on these dates could, for similar grounds, be obtained at other observing 



