Shooting Stars of August, 1839. 331 



or at a third-story window of a building in the city, the houses 

 on the opposite side of the street being one story higher. Seven 

 meteors were seen between llh. 55m. and 12h., four of which fell 

 in one minute ; and in two other instances three were seen to fall 

 in the same time. At least four fifths of the whole number seen 

 had manifest trains, and one fourth of these were unusually 

 brilliant, and varying from 10° to 20° in length. We were un- 

 able to fix upon the radiating point until 11 o'clock, when it was 

 in the breast of Cassiopeia ; at 12 it was near d Cassiopeige, and 

 at 1 near the tail of the Caraelopard. At none of these times, 

 however, was the radiant an exact point ; and twice the routes of 

 two meteors were observed to cross each other, in the first case 

 at 2°, and in the last at about 4° from their origin. Four or five 

 of. the 12 seen before lOh. P. M. seemed to come from near the 

 body of the Swan ; and two or three of those observed after this 

 hour must be set down as unconformable, since although they 

 came from the Northern part of the heavens, they could not be 

 traced to the radiant region of the others.* 



On the 10th I commenced observations with a friend, from the 

 top of a building, at 8h. 20m. P. M., and although both looked in 

 the same direction, (N.) we saw 36 meteors between that time 

 and 9 o'clock. From 9h. to 9h. 15m. the number seen was 13, 

 while in the half hour succeeding, only 19 were observed. ^ 



-At this time we began to observe in different portions of the 

 heavens, and before lOh. we saw six in the N. and seven in the 

 S. In the next fifteen minutes, ten were seen in the same man- 

 ner, when we retired to our room; after which, and before llh., 

 twelve were seen through a window opening towards the north ; 

 the whole number seen after 8h. 20m. being ninety-three. These, 

 with the exception of not more than 13, were visible to one ob- 

 server, and we have consequently eighty left as the number ob- 

 served in 2h. 40m., or an average of 30 per hour, which is about 

 six times the number ordinarily seen in an hour by one observer. 

 The trains left by the meteors were less brilliant than on the 9th. 

 The region of radiation was not as clearly circumscribed as on 

 the evening of the 9th, and at half past 8, was in the same situa- 

 tion as it was on that evening at 11. It appeared to move slowly 

 in the same direction, and when we ceased our observations, had 



* Doubtless some were unconformable ; but as we see only the position of the 

 plane iu which the meteor moves, its real direction may in some cases be nearly 

 opposite to its apparent course. 



