On the Meteors of 13th November, 1833. , 966 
the twelve signs, AEB the earth’s orbit, S the sun, and E the earth. 
On the morning of Nov. 13th, the place of the sun was in 211° of 
Scorpio, and that of the comet in 232° of Leo, (as observed at New 
Haven) being distant from the sun within 2}° of three signs or 90 de- 
grees. ‘The line of direction, therefore, as seen from the earth, was 
very nearly a tangent to the earth’s orbit, and consequently coincided 
nearly with the line of direction in which the earth itself was moving. 
In other words, the earth was moving almost directly towards the 
comet. ‘Therefore, S’ being the place of the sun among the signs, 
E’ that of the earth, and C’ that of the comet, join EC’, and the 
comet’s place will be in the line EC’,* and, as was before shown, 
very near to KE. Let it be at C. 
Now the comet remained apparently at rest, and of course near 
the line EC’ for at least two hours. ‘This it could not have done, 
unless it had been moving in nearly the same direction as the earth, 
and with nearly the same angular velocity around the sun. For had 
it been at rest, the earth, moving at the rate of 19 miles per second, 
would have overtaken it in less than two minutes; or, had it been 
moving in the opposite direction, the meeting would have occurred 
in still less time ; or had not the angular velocities of the two bodies 
been nearly equal, they could not have remained so long stationary 
with respect to each other. Hence we conclude, (1.) that the body 
was pursuing its way along with the earth around the sun. 
Taking it for granted that the orbit of the body is elliptical, like the 
orbits of all the other bodies of the system, we infer that, at the time 
of observation, it must have been either at its perihelion, or its aphel- 
ion, otherwise its angular velocity could not have corresponded so 
nearly to that of the earth. ‘The regular return of the phenomenon, 
at short periods, indicates that the aphelion, and not the perihelion, is 
near the orbit of the earth. . Another reason will be stated hereafter, 
which, it is supposed, confirms this conclusion. As the body was very 
near the earth at the time of observation, it must have been at its 
aphelion ; and being seen then, only 71° from the ecliptic, the plane 
of its orbit must be inclined at a small angle to the plane of the eclip- 
tic, so that the body itself, if seen at all, will be seen within the zo- 
diac.- From all these considerations we conclude, (2.) that the body 
revolves around the sun in an elliptical orbit, but little inclined to the 
* 74° northward of the plane of the ecliptic, as observed at New Haven. 
