OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 217 



Between lO*" p.ir. and midnight on August 9 th, 1875, Mr. Waller ob- 

 served 50 shooting-stars at Birmingham, showing that the shower of Perseids 

 had already reached a considerable intensity on that night. On the follow- 

 ing night Mr. Wood observed at the same place a somewhat larger number 

 (as will be seen by his report), and mapped the tracks of 40 meteors radi- 

 ating, with only one or two exceptions, from Perseus, and a few of them 

 from a branch radiant-point apparently at e Cassiopeiae. The principal 

 radiant-point in Perseus was at the star jj of that constellation — scarcely any 

 of the meteor-tracks prolonged backwards diverging far from this point, and 

 the radiant-point of the remainder, constituting a very small proportion of the 

 whole number, being in the neighbourhood of ^^ Persei. One of these meteors 

 (at 1 L** 39™ 30*) was as bright as Jupiter ; and eight others were as bright as 

 Sirius, or brighter than Ist-magnitude stars. Mr. Wood thus describes the 

 general characteristics of the shower during the period of his observations. 

 The sky was very clear and, from the absence of moonlight, very favourable 

 for obtaining meteor registrations. 



1875, Aug. 10, P.M. Hourly numbers. Average position of Percentage of 



From to Clear sky. One observer. the radiant-point. magnitudes. 



10" 11" 20 meteors seen. E..A. 36°, Decl.-|-57° lst=45p. ct. 



11 12 40 „ „ Perseids 85 per cent. 2ud=27 „ 



3rd=28 „ 



Predominating colour of the meteors yellow. Eighteen of the forty meteors 

 mapped were described as leaving very persistent streaks, one of these (the 

 last on the regular list, at 12" 6™) being a bright meteor from the direction 

 of the well-known concomitant radiant-point of the August shower in 

 Pegasus. On the nights of August 9th and 11th the sky was overcast. 



The sky was clear and the meteor-shower was weU seen at Sunderland by 

 Mr. T. W. Backhouse on the night of the 10th, from whom the particulars of 

 its appearance noted below have been received. The following is Mr. Back- 

 house's description of a Perseid of great brightness, which exceeded in magni- 

 tude any other meteor of the shower which he observed : — " It appeared at 

 13" 24" [1'^ 24" A.M., August 11th, 1875] i° to the right of a Auriga, and 

 was directed towards d, disappearing near v and r Aurigae. It increased 

 very rapidly in brightness just before disappearing, becoming brighter than 

 Venus at its brightest, making a bright glow round it. Its tail also increased 

 rapidlj^ in brightness and was of many colours, but its changes were too 

 rapid for me to foUow them ; purple, however, predominated at first, and 

 afterwards green. After the head disappeared, the tail remained some 

 seconds quite straight (and vertical), and gradually became slightly serpen- 

 tine — the brightest part (that near the head) lasting at least 4| minutes, 

 becoming a group of cloudy patches 3° or 4° in extent, and spreading out 

 N. and S. The stars y and r were at first at the S. end, and then in 

 the middle of this group. At 13" 27" or 28" I looked at it with my 4^- 

 inch refractor with a low power ; it was irresolvable, and like a group of a 

 few large iiudcflned nebulae, the brightest part at y and r Aurigae." In a 

 watch at intervals between 10'' 20" and 14'' 20", amounting together to 96 

 minutes, and equivalent to one of 82 minutes in a sky without clouds or 

 twilight, 70 meteors were seen, corresponding (as the number seen in a clear 

 sky by one observer) to an average rate of frequency of 51 meteors per 

 hour. The great majority of the meteors seen in these periods of observation 

 of the shower were Perseids. 



