OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 333 



Lyrids of the present year in which their feebly pronounced display seems 

 to have been somewhat peculiar.* 



The next remarkable meteor-shower observations of the present year 

 were those of the July and August shooting-stars, 1878. A distinct 

 shower of Cassiopeiads of those months, coinciding with one already re- 

 corded by Greg, Heis, and Schiaparelli, at about 12° + 70°, was observed 

 in July by Mr. Denning at 15° + 70° (thirty-five meteors). Towards the 

 end of July, having, from foreign catalogues and other sources, obtained 

 abundant indications of circum- Perseus and other contemporary showers 

 of the great August epoch, Mr. Denning employed the finest nights 

 after the moon's last quarter to verify them by his own observations. A 

 meteor was thus observed on July 21st, of a shower near 8 Persei 

 (at 32° + 53°), of which Mr. Denning had anticipated the date and posi- 

 tion from the following indications : — 



July 6-17 (1877) ... 36°+ 47°, 6 | s; observed by W. F. 1 



Denning 



„ 25-31 32°+ 51°, 25 |s; in various foreign 



Catalogues 



' „ 15-Aug. 2 30°+ 47°, 10 js; in the Italian Cata- 



Average position 



July 6- Aug. 13, 



33°+ 49°. 



and Aug. 6-12 34°+ 50°, 3|s; in the Italian Cata- 

 logue, 1872 



„ 13 33°+ 51°, 10 4-s; in various foreign 



Catalogues 



logue, 1872 < (= Schmidt, 



Aug. 3-12, 



31°+ 55°.) 



A strong maximum of this shower, quite confirming the correctness of 

 Mr. Denning's anticipations of its reappearance, set in on the nights of 

 July 26th- August 1st, exhibiting a perfectly defined radiant-point 3° or 4° 

 south of the star-cluster ■% Persei, at 33° + 52°. Forty-four meteors from 

 this radiant-point were traced on the nights of July 30th, 31st, and Au- 

 gust 1st, alone ; and the whole number of meteor tracks recorded from it 

 until August 1st was fifty-nine. The maximum took place on the night 

 of July 31st, when twenty-one of its meteors were observed. They are 

 short, swift, white shooting- stars, leaving streaks, and by their resemblance 

 to the true Perseids, or Perse'ids I, fromwhose principal centre their radiant 

 is only distant about six or seven degrees, these mock-Perse'ids, or 

 Perse'ids II, have no doubt been mistaken, when abundant in July, for the 

 earliest meteor-representatives of the true Perse'id display. The shower 

 was of brief duration, and as short-lived in its departure as in approach- 

 ing its maximum, for among forty-four meteors seen on the nights of Au- 

 gust 7th and 8th, when the sky was again clear enough for observation, 

 not a single meteor of this new Perse'id system was observed. Of the 

 true Perse'ids the first indications seen were five or six meteors, on the 

 nights of July 31st and August 1st ; and six meteors among sixteen, regis- 

 tered on August 7th, were Perseids I. 



* ' The April Lyrids and Contemporary Meteor-Showers,' by W. F. Denning ■ 

 * Monthly Notices ' of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. xxxviii. p. 396, May, 

 1878. A number of circum- Lyra showers for the great April-erjoch, deduced from 

 foreign observers' catalogues, together with some active shower-centres in April, 

 observed by himself, are presented in this Paper by Mr. Denning. Among the latter 

 is one suspected near 8 Cassiopeia?, which is perhaps identical with the centre of 

 divergence of two detonating fireballs seen in Austria on April 10th, 1874, and April 

 9th, 1876, which Professor von Niessl found to be near e Cassiopeia?. (See the last 

 volume of these Reports, p. 147.) 



