260 report— 1878. 



large meteor seen shot from over the north of Yorkshire to the Firth of 

 Forth, where it disappeared at a height of 15 or 20 miles very nearly over 

 Edinburgh, on the evening of May 12th, 1878. A report like thunder 

 heard at Galashiels, seems to have resulted from a division of the fireball, 

 seen at Scarborough, by a fragment falling from it some time before 

 the end of its course, when it must have been passing over Galashiels at a 

 distance of about 35 or 40 miles. It belonged to a radiant point in Virgo, 

 very probably identical with that of a new and rich shower of April and 

 May shooting stars, seen by Mr. Denning (and perhaps also, on April 18, 

 1841, by Professer Forshey, in America) at about 205°-10°, in 1877. 



A fireball descended with a detonation to a low height over a point 

 near Market Harborongh, on April 2nd, 1878. It was well observed at 

 two places, and its radiant-point in Ursa Major was very well determined. 

 A large fireball which passed slowly over Devonshire on the 7th of j June, 

 from the English to the Bristol Channel, probably had the same radiant 

 point, with one or two companion fireballs on the same evening, as the 

 detonating meteor (investigated by Professors Galle and Von Niessl) of 

 June 17th, 1873, in Austria and Bohemia. Of this fireball and of one seen 

 on the night of July 29th over the neighbourhood of Manchester, however, 

 the heights, real courses, and velocities have only been very partially 

 established from the observations. 



Among the chief annual meteor showers observed during the past 

 year, all but the April Lyrids were pretty notable displays, denoting well- 

 marked returns of the several special star- showers of the year. The 

 August display of Perseids, in the year 1877, was as bright as, or perhaps 

 a little brighter than the average ; but not much more so (if even quite 

 so bright as usual) in August, 1878, the state of the sky at some places 

 being, on August 10th, in both years, very fairly favourable for the 

 observations. The Orionids were well seen, and reached a maximum of 

 22 meteors per hour on the morning of October 18th, 1877 ; the 

 meteors were bright, leaving very characteristic streaks, and radiated 

 very exactly from the point near v Orionis, which is the usual centre of the 

 shower. The Leonids were re-observed in England and in America, whei'e 

 two observers counted thirty of them per hour on the morning of 

 November 14th. The Andromedes were seen both on November 25th and 

 27th, about as numerous as the unconformable meteors on those nights. 

 The Geminids appeared in greater numbers than usual, reaching a 

 maximum on December 11th, 1877, which was well seen, and the 

 characters and radiant point of the shower were last year very well ob- 

 served. The meteors of January 2nd also made their appearance in a 

 pretty bright stream, seen in England to be very active on the morning of 

 that day, and affording a pretty good new determination of its radiant- 

 point. Among these regular returns of special showers, the display of 

 the Lyrids of April 19th-21st, in the year 1878, was, on the other hand, 

 somewhat scanty, and inferior to those of the other showers ; only a few 

 of its meteors being noticed, and those on the nights of the 21st and 22nd 

 of April, principally, when the meteor shower of the Lyrids ordinarily is 

 well-nigh extinguished. 



Throughout the autumn months, in the spring, and again on the ap- 

 proach of the August meteors, Mr. W. F. Denning recorded appearances 

 of meteor showers in watchful observations of the sky whenever the ab- 

 sence of the moon and freedom from clouds offered opportunities for their 

 detection. Of such showers, many were new, and presented other features 



