330 Shooting Stars of August 9 and 10, 1840. 



so that we may safely conclude that on the night of the 9th and 

 10th August, 1840, shooting stars were here at least sis times as 

 numerous as usual. 



2. Place of the radiant. A large majority of the meteors 

 moved, as is usual on these occasions, in paths which were doubt- 

 less nearly parallel. Their visible tracks appeared to us to diverge 

 from a region about the cluster in the sword-handle of Perseus, 

 but it was not easy to determine within three or four degrees the 

 centre of this region. To make this determination with much 

 precision, the track of each meteor must be noted on a star-chart, 

 as has in several instances been done by observers in Europe. 

 This we could not conveniently do without numerous assistants. 

 According to observations made at the Konigsberg Observatory, 

 Aug. 10 and 11, 1839, (Astr. Nach. No. 385, p. 1,) the point of 

 divergence was then near the head of Perseus, which differs 

 scarcely at all from the determination made here. The observa- 

 tions made at Breslau, in August, 1839, by a corps of fifteen ob- 

 servers, (see this Journ. Vol. xxxviii, p. 203,) would furnish am- 

 ple materials for settling the place of the radiant with all the . 

 precision of which the case admits. The general apparent course 

 of the meteors must have been towards a point little west of 

 south. 



3. Time of 7naximum. The determination of the time of the 

 night at which the meteors are most numerous is an important 

 element in ascertaining the direction of the "meteoric stream." 

 The observations of the present year agree with what appeared 

 most probable from the observations made in this country last 

 year, that the maximum occurs after three o'clock in the morning. 

 This agrees nearly with the results of observations made by M. 

 Colla and others, at Parma, in Italy, on the 9th and 10th of Aug. 

 1839, (Bull. Acad.de Brux. vi : 9, p. 11,) but other European 

 observers have reported the meteors of the August epoch no less 

 abundant before than after midnight. I can not doubt that in 

 this country at least, and probably throughout the northern hemi- 

 sphere, the meteors of this season are most numerous as late as 

 three in the morning. 



4. Apparent sizes, colors. S^c. We kept no account of the ap- 

 parent sizes of the meteors, and can only say, in general, that as 

 many as 50 equaled the planet Jupiter, and a few surpassed it in 

 splendor, and about 200 were equal or superior to stars of the 



