OBSERVATIONS OP LUMINOUS METEORS. 



157 



of the real direction and position of its visible flight over the comities of the 

 seacoast, near the Iluinber, can be arrived at. 



III. Meteoric Showers. 



The moderate intensity of the display of Perse'ids on the 9th-l 1th of August, 

 1870, was noticed in the last lleport. The descriptions of the shower by English 

 observers, which tho Committee has received, generally confirm this, although 

 the light of the moon on the 9th, 10th, and 11th concealed many small 

 meteors, and the sky was hazy or partially cloudy at many of the stations. 

 Among the lists of tracks recorded under the most favourable conditions, tho 

 following table shows the hourly numbers of conformable and unconformable 

 meteors, respectively, mapped on the principal nights of the shower, together 

 with the percentage numbers of meteors exceeding the first and second mag- 

 nitudes of the fixed stars, respectively, in brightness which were recorded on 

 the successive nights. 



Though the moon's light interfered, yet as it was in its third quarter on the 

 12th, and as in two hours after midnight on the night of the 11th there were 

 seen at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, 3 fourth mag., 29 third mag., 13 

 second mag., and only one meteor as bright as a first magnitude star, when 

 the moon was at its brightest, it is evident by comparing this residt with the 

 much larger proportion of bright meteors seen on the previous nights, that the 

 most brilliant meteors of the shower were considerably more abundant on the 

 nights of the 9th and 10th than on the 11th. The observations, even where long 

 continued, elsewhere agree with each other very imperfectly in this respect; but 



Date, 1876, August 



9. 



10. 



11. 



12. 



Totals mapped, 

 Perseids and 

 unconform- 

 able, and me- 

 teors of plane- 

 tary & 1st to 4th 

 magnitudes. 



York, 

 J. E. Clark. 



Sunderland, 

 T. W. Back- 

 house. 



Ijirmingham, 

 r\V. H. Wood. 



f Conformable and unconformable 



•j meteors per hour 



[ 1st and 2nd magnitudes, per cent. ... 



{Meteors per hour (for a clear sky) 

 Jupiter or Sirius, and 1st to 4th 

 magnitudes (totals seen) 



Glasgow, 

 E MWlure. 



Radcliffe 



Observatory, 

 Oxford, 

 J. Lucas. 



Hawkhurst, 



K ent, 



A. S. llerschel. 



I Meteors per hour (^ of the sky) . . 

 \ 1st and 2nd magnitudes, per cent. 



f Meteors per hour (cloud and haze) 



[ 1st and 2nd magnitudes, per cent. 



(Conformable and unconformable 

 meteors per hour 

 1st and 2nd magnitudes, per cent. 



| Conformable and unconformable, 



\ per hour (clear) 



[ 1st and 2nd magnitudes, per cent. 



11 



(cloudy.) 



(cloudy.) 

 (cloudy.) 



7,3 

 36, 39 



11,2 

 30,38 



18,4 

 39, 32 



14 



5,3 

 50, 40 



10 



40,33 



6,5 



18, 3G 



25, 6 



21.24 



0,2 

 50,30 



12 



50, 40 



11 

 25,40 



8,0 

 5, 20 



9,3 



32,32 



57,21. 



6, 22, 24, 16, 9. 



42,11. 



8, 17, 9, 15, 9. 



14,8. 

 1,11,9,0,0. 



(Nearly all 

 Perse'ids.) 

 0, 8, 8, 7, 0. 



66, 50. 

 3,16,41,55,3. 



50, 9. 



1, 10, 14, 13, 8. 



