OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 219 



what greater right ascension and declination (by four or five degrees) than 

 this position ; and a comparison of its elements might perhaps be attempted 

 successfully with those of the comet of 1821, 1, (radiant-point at 86°,4-19°-5), 

 if the nodal date (jN'ovember 11th) of this comet is capable of being recon- 

 ciled with the much earlier time of appearance of the Orion shower. In the 

 ' Memorie della Soc. degli Spettroscopisti Italiani ' of May 1874, a memoir on 

 the meteors of the 17th-2Sth of October (1609 meteor-tracks observed by 

 Drs. Heis and Schmidt, Zezioli, and at the Vienna Observatory, between the 

 years 1843 and 1873), by Ludwig Gruber, of Vienna, is inserted, in which 

 the author discusses the ap]iareut radiant-points of this meteoric epoch by 

 projecting the meteor-tracks recorded successively on each single date. The 

 smallest number of tracks (65) occurred on the 20th, and the greatest (284 

 and 226) on the 22nd and 24tli of October ; 310 meteors were found to be 

 sporadic, or incapable of reduction to any distinguishable radiant-point. 

 Of the remaining meteors, Dr. Gruber regards 16 radiant-points as having 

 sufficiently well-defined positions to admit of further calculations as regards 

 their orbits. The accompanying list (p. 220) exhibits the dates and positions 

 together with the relative intensities of these several showers, as shown by 

 the percentage numbers of meteors belonging to them on the days when 

 they were most conspicuous. The Table also contains comparisons of their 

 positions with those of already noted meteor-showers in other radiant-lists. 



These radiants may be grouped in great part under already recognized 

 displays, as those of the Orionids (II. & VIII.), Muscids (V., X., XIV.), 

 Taurids (VI.), Castorids, or OemelUds (between Castor and Pollux, IX.), a 

 shower from near /3 Geminorum (first recorded in that constellation by Herrick 

 from the 20th to the 26th of October, 1839, and observed at the above place, 

 in great intensity, by Zezioli from the 21st to the 25th, and especially on 

 the morning of the 23rd of October, 1868 *), Cassiopeids (XII.), anA.Pokirids 

 (XV.). But certain radiant-points of the list are new to the general Radiant 

 Catalogue of Mr. Greg in the last volume of these Eeports, and they are in- 

 cluded below (Xos. 194, 195) in the present Supplementary Table of that list. 

 Dr. Gruber's position of the radiant-point XIII. agrees distantly with that of 

 a new radiant-point for the end of October near o Piscium, noticed by Mr. 

 Backhouse in 1872, and established by Mr. Greg from several other meteor- 

 tracks in his examination of the recent observations. It may be added that 

 the older radiants RG^, T^^ ^ 3' ^^<i '^^v E, o, and N^j Ag, in August, and the 

 October-December showers Ai5_i7 near Cassiopeia, have undergone revision 

 by means of the observations up to the j^ear 1873, and that reductions to 

 more definite positions that other showers admit of will perhaps be further 

 illustrated when the unusually large collection of observations in the year 

 1873-74 have aU been projected. The radiant IST^^ (G. & H., 1874, No. 83) 

 appears to have arisen out of a distinct meteor-shower in Cassiopeia (Aj^, 

 G. & H., ITos. 83, 98 in the Supplementary List), accompanying that of the 

 Persei'ds, reaching a maximum about the 10th and again on the 23rd of 

 August, which has been well marked among the recent observations at a 

 place (provisionally assigned to it) at y Cassiopeiae. The relation of this 

 new shower to the two formerly adopted radiant-points A^ and N^^, and its 

 final separation from the Perseus radiant-point, with which it has pro- 

 bably been identified by indiscriminate projections hitherto, will form an 

 important subject for investigation in future observations. 



* Herrick's shower at 99°, +26° (e Geminorum), Gruber's and Schiaparelli's position 

 from Zezioli's observatious, and one in Tupman's list (No. 90) are the only recorded 

 radiant-centres of the October period in the constellation Gemini. 



