332 kbpobt— 1878 



nids. The watch on all these mornings was directed towards the eastern 

 sky, not so much to observe the Geminids as to discover some new showers 

 in Virgo, Corona, Bootes, &c, which are just visible before daylight in 

 December ; and of four of these which I observed I believe the following 

 positions to be accurate, at 199° + 19°, 221° + 43°, 230° + 33°, and 

 195° - 3° (December ll-14th, a.m., 1877). 



" The radiant point of the Geminids was at 307° + 33°, with suspected 

 neighbouring centres at 102° + 45°, 87° + 37°, and 111 + 23°. The me- 

 teors were slow near the radiant, but rapid when far from it. Their 

 coui'ses are not often marked with streaks, and are almost invariably 

 short ; in this and other particulars of tie general appearance of the Ge- 

 minids, I can clearly confirm Mr. Greg's remarks from rny own observa- 

 tions of them both this year and last." 



Star-showers of January and April, 1878. — -Watches kept at several 

 places in England for the meteors of January lst-3rd were almost 

 wholly unsuccessful, a cloudy and overcast state of the sky having 

 prevailed everywhere on the dates of their expected appearance. Occa- 

 sional glimpses of clear sky occurred in Kent, however, on the first 

 three nights of the year, and the January shower was seen, at Hawk- 

 hurst, with some intensity on the morning of January 2nd, by Profes- 

 sor Herschel. Seventeen Quadrantids and three unconformable meteors 

 were registered during the half hour beginning at four o'clock, a.m., 

 at the end of which clouds formed and overspread the sky. The meteors 

 were bright, two being equal to Jupiter or Sirius, and five or six equal to 

 each of the first and second magnitudes of the fixed stars ; the rest being 

 as bright as third or fourth magnitude stars ; occasional thin clouds, and 

 a slight haze which dimmed the stars, perhaps concealed some meteors of 

 the smallest magnitudes, and caused the radiant obtained from their 

 recorded tracks to be a little diffuse. Its centre occupied a point at about 

 222° + 55° in quadrans, near 6 Bootis. This point being nearly in the 

 zenith, the meteors' courses were short and quick, and that of the brightest 

 one appeared to be a little curved. They were yellowish- white in colour, 

 and left no streaks or sparks. During a watch of half an hour on each 

 of the mornings of January 1st and 3rd, when the sky was clear, no me- 

 teors of the Quadrantid shower were seen, the maximum of its display 

 being accordingly confined to the morning of the 2nd. 



The nights of April 19th-21st, 1878, were also very unfavourable for 

 observations, but a slight return of the " Lyrids " was observed at Bristol 

 on the nights of April 20th-22nd, by Mr. Denning. Three Lyrids and 

 three meteors from a radiant near e Herculis were seen in two hours, amid 

 much cloud, on the 20th ; and in the same time, with very clear sky, 

 twenty-five meteors (six Lyrids) and twenty- two meteors (three Lyrids) 

 were seen towards midnight on the 21st and 22nd. An abundance of me- 

 teors, and a continuance of the Lyrid shower on these latter nights is rare ; 

 and it seems to have been an exceptional feature of the shower in the present 

 year. The meteors left streaks, and the paths recorded were nearly all 

 foreshortened near the radiant-point, which was very exactly defined at 

 272° + 32°. This position, near d and the star 99 (A 2 Bode) Herculis, 

 is in 5° less right ascension than the Lyrid-centre (QH 2 , 1874) found 

 by Greg and Herschel, and agrees more exactly with the radiant of the 

 Lyrid-comet 18G1 I (at 271° + 33°), and with the position found in April, 

 1869, by Professor Schiaparelli from Dr. Karlinski's observations (at 267° 

 + 35°), than other previous determinations ; a feature also of the April 



