172 report — 1877. 



again from the 8th to the 17th of November. From its occurring at an 

 earlier date, in the stars of the southern twin-comrade asterism (Pollux), 

 than the Geininids, which radiate from the northern part of the constellation, 

 the epithet ' Gemellus ' (twin brother) is applied to distinguish the shower of 

 Gemcllids in October and November from the only other meteor-system (the 

 annual shower of the Geminids on December ll-12th) whose radiant-point 

 at any season of the year has yet been discovered in that constellation. A 

 pretty active December shower in the Lynx was observed by Mr. Cordcr and 

 Mr. Denning, whose radiant-point agrees very nearly with one noted by Mr. 

 Gruey at Toulouse on the 10th and 11th of December, 1874, at 130°, +46° 

 (see these Reports, vol. for 1875, p. 214). 



The Geminids were also well observed in France, according to the bulletins 

 of the Trench Scientific Association (vol. for 1876-77, p. 208), by the ob- 

 servers under M. Tisserand's direction at the Observatory of Toulouse. Two 

 observers counted 106 meteors in two hours between ll h p.m. on the 11th 

 and l h a.m. on the 12th of December, most of their courses proceeding, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Perrotin's determination of its place, from a radiant not more 

 than 2° or 3° from a position at 115°, + 33° (which is a little east of, while 

 Mr. Denning's and Mr. Corder's places, coincidiug nearly with several 

 previous determinations near r Geminorum, are a little west of Castor). 

 A translation of this French notice will be found in ' Nature ' (vol. xv. 

 p. 207), which also records (p. 208) that the Annuaire du Bureau des 

 Longitudes for the year 1877 contains for the first time, for the guidance of 

 observers, a full table of the situations throughout the year of the various 

 radiant-points of shooting-stars. 



The January and April meteor-showers in 1877. — No regular watch was 

 kept, owing to very tempestuous weather, for the meteors of January 1st to 

 3rd, at the beginning of this year ; and although the full moon by its return 

 on the last night of the preceding year partially dispelled the clouds, few 

 stars were visible through the haze, and no meteors of this periodical star- 

 shower were observed. 



The watch for the Lyrids on the nights of April 18th to 21st was also 

 very unsuccessful, from the absence, apparently, of the stai-shower on its 

 annual date. An account of his attempt to catch some view of the shower on 

 the night of April 19th-20th is given by Mr. Denning in ' The Observatory,' 

 (vol. i. p. 50), when he watched continuously for five hours, from 10 h 30 m to 

 15 h 30 m , in a perfectly clear sky, and recorded 29 paths of shooting-stars. 

 Of these four only were Lyrids, and only one was a Coronid, a very re- 

 markable example of the irregular and intermittent intensity of some annual 

 meteor-streams. During two hours on the morning of April 17th three 

 Lyrids and none at all from Corona were registered. In April 1873 and 

 1874, Mr. Denning states, the Lyrids and Coronids were the most active 

 showers of that month, only the former having a decided maximum of inten- 

 sity about the 20th of April, while the second, beginning in the first half of 

 April, lasted with little abatement through the whole of May and even into 

 June. The radiant of the few Lyrids mapped was at 269°, +37°. A similar 

 place was obtained (at 265°, + 38°) from 31 tracks in the Italian Catalogue 

 between March 31st and April 13th, and again from 15 tracks in the same 

 Catalogue between May 3rd and 13th [the mean position of 6 stationary 

 Lyrids recorded in the Austrian Catalogue, April 20-23, 1867-74, was at 

 266°*5, +36°-5]. The positions of six other radiant-points faintly marked by 

 the unconformable meteor-tracks of April 19th-20th, 1877, were similarly 

 confirmed by Mr. Denning's reductions of the foreign observers' catalogues, 



