Shooting Stars of August, 1839. 329 



2. Middletown, Ct. — Mr. L. L. Knox, of the Wesleyan Uni- 

 versity, has communicated to me the following particulars. " On 

 the evening of the 10th of August, 1839, I commenced my ob- 

 servations at 9 o'clock ; I had however seen four meteors in the 

 west before this. The following were the hours of observation 

 and the number of meteors seen during each. 



9h. to lOh. p. M. between S. and W., 31 meteors, =31 



lOh. to llh. " " 41, and 2 in E. =43 



llh. to 12h. " " 45, and2inN.E. =47 



3h. to 4h. A. M. (11th,) various quarters, 66, =66 



From 9h. to midnight, my attention was directed almost en- 

 tirely to the S. W. I turned my eye a few times to the N. E. 

 and saw four meteors in that direction, as stated above. With 

 a few exceptions, these meteors seemed to converge nearly, to a 

 point in the Milky Way in the S. W., 10° or 15° below the ho- 

 rizon. Their directions would not cross each other in a single 

 point, but would intersect within a space of 4° or 5°. The paths 

 of a very few were nearly at right angles to the general direction. 

 Between 11 and 12 o'clock, only ten were seen the first half hour. 

 They increased so much that the next half hour produced 37. I 

 retired at midnight, and rose in season to recommence observa- 

 tions at 3 A. M. of the 11th. During the first 35 minutes I saw 

 ffty, but as the morning light increased, the number of meteors 

 diminished so much that only 16 more appeared before 4 o'clock. 

 At 3h. A. M., the place of convergence had descended so far be- 

 low the horizon, that I directed my attention to the point of di- 

 vergence, which was now but little to the N. E. of the zenith. 

 The meteors appeared to radiate still from the same place in the 

 heavens, and moved in all directions from this point. The me- 

 teors were generally very brilliant. Three which I saw in the 

 S. W. between llh. and f^h., were equal in brilliancy to the 

 planet Venus. About 15 minutes before llh., while looking to- 

 wards the S. W., I observed a bright flash on surrounding ob- 

 jects, exactly similar to a faint flash of lightning, which at first I 

 supposed it was, but it soon occurred to me that it must have 

 been a meteor. I immediately turned to the N. E. and saw the 

 train it had left, still quite brilliant, and it was several seconds be- 

 fore it entirely disappeared. The train was short, and lay in 



Vol. XXXVII, No. 2.— July-October, 1839. 42 



