OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 329 



in October) an inextricable mixture of radiants and snbradiants." Mr. 

 Denning wrote, at Bristol : " The Taurids I, this year, seem to Have been 

 an utter failure ; of 508 meteors registered between October 14th and 

 November 14th, only about fifteen can be referred to that shower ; yet I 

 have been looking a good deal towards Taurus ! " No well-marked dates, 

 nor even radiant-points of the ' Taurid ' shooting-stars, in 1877, were 

 accordingly observed. 



The Leonids, and Andromedes in 1877. — Of the Leonids distinct but 

 3 T et feeble traces were recorded by Mr. Denning on the mornings of 

 November 11th and 14th.* Mr. Backhouse, at Sunderland, registered 

 seven of their paths, with those of eight other shooting- stars, in l h 20 m 

 of clear watch, ending at G h 15 m a.m. on the morning of November 14th, 

 one as bright as Jupiter, leaving a bright bluish-green train for three 

 seconds, where it shone out brightly near the end of its course ; the num- 

 ber and well-marked radiant-point of these meteors clearly denoting a 

 slight but yet very distinct return of the November Leonids. It was also 

 seen in America, as the following notice, extracted from, the 'American 

 Journal of Science ' (3rd ser., vol. xv., p. 76), in ' The Observatory ' (vol. 

 ii., p. 64, June, 1878), describes : — 



" The November meteors. — Professor Kirkwood writes in the 'American 

 Journal of Science,' of January, 1878, that fifty-four meteors were counted 

 by two observers (B. Vail and C. P. Carr) at Bloomington, Inda., on the 

 morning of November 14th, 1877, between l h 55 m and3 h 45 m a.m., being 

 at the rate of thirty per hour. Nearly all were Leonids, a few being as large as 

 first magnitude stars, with trains which lasted for several seconds. The 

 appearance of so large a. number, ten or eleven years after the maximum dis- 

 plays of 1866-67, is quite unexpected. The early part of the night was 

 cloudy, but before 2 h a.m. the sky became quite clear." The interval of 

 Mr. Backhouse's watch ending soon after 6 o'clock, terminated about an 

 hour before that of the American observers' watch began. A pretty 

 bright commencement of the rather stronger Leonid display recorded in 

 America, as this paragraph describes, must accordingly, during Mr. 

 Backhouse's observations at Sunderland at a slightly earlier hour, have 

 been the general character and appearance of this meteor-shower during 

 the early portion of its time of apparition, in which it appears that a 

 somewhat notable return cf the Leonids in November, 1877, was visible 

 in America. 



Two apparitions of the November Andromedes, about equal in intensity 

 to that of the Leonids, were seen on the nights of November 25th and 

 27th, 1877, by Mr. Denning and Mr. Backhouse. At Bristol Mr. 

 Denning relates that, " Observations of the Andromedes were commenced 

 on the evening of November 25th. Between about 5 h 40 m and 7 h 10 m 

 (1^ hour) sixteen meteors were seen, of which seven, or nearly one-half, were 

 Andromedes, with a radiant-point sharply defined at 24° + 45 (near %, to 

 Andromeda?). They were very slow orange-coloured meteors with short 

 paths. On the evening of November 27th, between about 9 h and 10 h 30 m , 

 the sky was watched for 1^ hour, and ten meteors were seen, of which 



* 1877, Nov. 11, between 12 b m a.m. and 2 h 35 m a.m. ; in 21 hrs., 2 Leonids and 

 30 unconform. Is seen; sky very clear. 



1877, Nov. 13, between 12 h 14'" a.m. and l 1 ' 57 m a.m. ; in 1 \ hrs., no Leonids, 21 

 unconform. 4-s seen. 



1877, Nov. 14, between l h lfl m a.m. and 3" 22™ a.m., in 2 hrs., only 2 Leonids and 

 24 unconform. js seen; slight fog; no clouds. — W. F. Denning. 



