OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEOES. 331 



radiant-points which might at the same time be observable in the con- 

 stellation Gemini, none such could be detected. 



Mr. Corder's and Mr. Denning's observations of the Geminids near 

 Chelmsford, and at Bristol, relate principally to the shower's appearance 

 on the nights of December 9th, 10th, and 12th. It was on the former date 

 that its meteors first appeared to Mr. Corder to be growing numerous, 

 only occasional Geminid-meteors having been visible earlier in Decem- 

 ber, when the sky was favourable for observations. " On the 9th, 

 however, nearly twenty were seen in about three hours, the first hour 

 (from 8 h to 9 h p.m.) producing very few meteors of any kind. One 

 Geminid, as bright as Sirius, of a beautiful pale emerald-green colour, left 

 a streak at disappearance. Simultaneously with the true Geminids a 

 meteor system was active, diverging from 4 Geminorum, supplying finer 

 and longer meteors. One of these was seen at 8 h lo m in the north-west, 

 as bright as Jupiter, of a bluish mauve tint, leaving a long but narrow 

 streak. At ll h 58 m a similar one shot upwards to Polaris, as bright as 

 Sirius, and of the same manve colour as the former one. 



" The characteristic of these meteors seemed to be their length and 

 the brightness of the streaks mostly left upon their tracks, while the 

 true Germinids were short, and seldom streak-leaving. Their radiant 

 was at 108° + 28°, and this meteor-stream had ceased almost entirely on 

 the following night. 



. _ "On the next evening (December 10th), between 7 h and ll h 30 m , 

 sixty-five meteors were seen, forty of which were Geminids. The hour 

 from 10 h 30 m to ll h 30 m produced twenty-five meteors, almost all from 

 the principal radiant. Only one was equal to a first magnitude star, and 

 it was pale green, Yery few of the Geminids left streaks, and they were 

 mostly very short and small. 



The radiant was diffuse, perhaps owing to the difficulty of mapping 

 them in the barren part of the sky between Gemini and Polaris where 

 they frequently appeared. Many radiated from near Castor, and others 

 from nearer to 6 Geminorum ; the mean position [nearly midway between 

 those stars] being at 107° + 35°. 



"A few Geminids were seen on the 12th; the 11th being quite over- 

 cast. 



Some further account of the shower's prevalence on the latter date, and 

 on some earlier days in December, are supplied by Mr. Denning's notes, 

 who wrote from Bristol : — " On the night of December 6th, I found meteors 

 wonderfully scarce ; only thirteen in three hours (!) ; and only two of 

 them were Geminids. Of twenty-three meteors seen in two hours and a 

 half on the evening of the 8th and morning of the 9th, four were Gemi- 

 nids. On the morning of the 11th, between 5 h 10 m and 6 h 10 m a.m. (l h ) 

 eleven meteors were seen, including two Geminids. On the morning of 

 the 13th (between storms and clouds), I looked out for about three-quar- 

 ters of an hour between 4 h 45 m and 5 h 45™ a.m. Meteors were falling 

 very fast, and I saw twenty-eight altogether, of which six were Gemi- 

 nids.* In one and a quarter hour, between 5 h 15 m and 6 h 30 m a.m. on 

 the morning of December 14th, twenty-one meteors were seen, but no Gemi- 



* Among these meteors a few fine shooting stars with streaks and very swift 

 long paths, diverged from a point on the equator in R.A. 166°. This agrees with 

 a position (T. 2) given by Captain Tupman, although for a rather later date, at 

 160°+ 3°, Dec. 23-31st and 165°+ 4°, Jan. 8-10th. 



