On the Meteors of ISih November. 407 



One reason probably, why so naany persons referred the radiant 

 point to the zenith, is that most persons began their observations when 

 the constellation Leo was near the meridian ; and we have already 

 adverted to the liability of observers to consider points of great alti- 

 tude as nearer the zenith than they really are, on account of the dif- 

 ficulty of looking directly upwards. In the Gulf of Mexico, Capt. 

 Parker, saw the radiant point at 3 or 4 o'clock in the northeast, at 

 an altitude of 45° ; and Capt. Seymour, of the De Witt Clinton, 

 descending the Hudson river, saw the radiant point at an altitude 

 which he judged to be about 45° S. E.* 



7. If the apparent radiant point from which the meteors proceeded 

 was merely the effect of perspective, no inference could be made 

 respecting the height of the region from which they came ; as the 

 same apparent convergence of the distant parts of parallel lines would 

 be presented, whether the lines were one mile or a thousand miles in 

 length. Such an apparent convergence, or radiation, in itself, merely 

 proves that the lines are nearly or entirely parallel. But if the me- 

 teors came from a region of space, being attracted towards the earth 

 by gravity, in lines directed towards the center of the earth, and 

 therefore within a moderate space parallel to each other, then the 

 convergence of such lines to a focus would indicate the position of 

 that focus in the heavens ; and this position being accurately noted 

 by different observers, at places remote from each other on the sur- 

 face of the earth, the height of the place whence the meteors origi- 

 nated, can be determined, unless that height be too great to exhibit 

 any parallax. In the present instance this does not appear to be the 

 case ; for the radiant point as observed by Dr. Aiken, at Eramitts- 

 burg, and by the writer, at New Haven, had a parallax of about 3° 

 40' in declination. 



It is to be remarked that, although the several observers who fixed 

 the position of the radiant among the stars agreed in plaging it in the 

 constellation Leo, yet the distant observers did not assign it to the 

 same part of Leo. At New Haven, it appeared a little to the west- 

 ward of Gamma Leonis having a declination of 21°. At Emmitts- 

 burg, it was north and west of the same star, with a declination of 



5, a very large meteor burst in the south-east, and gave origin to a himinous cloud, 

 which remained visible from 30 to 40 minutes. We had no appearance of the au- 

 rora borealis, nor can I learn that any of the fire balls were seen to ascend," 



* Mr. Twining. 



