METEORIC SHOWER OF AUGUST lo, 18S2. 313 



were short say from 5° to 20° in length. Occasionally a bright one appeared 

 soon after another one, and nearly in the same place. Watch was kept 

 on the nth till near 11:00 P. M.; but the show was much less interesting than on 

 the night previous. Near twenty meteors were seen, nearly all of inferior bright- 

 ness, though four or five were bright enough to have dim trails behind them. 



So far as yet developed, the current year is the epoch of sun-spot maximum 

 for the current period: and April 17th probably the day on which the greatest 

 number of spots were visible. On that day I counted 175 spots on the Sun. 

 The night previous will be remembered as the time of the great aurora, so ele- 

 gantly written up, and pubUshed in the Review, by Prof. E. L. Larkin, of New 

 Windsor, 111. On the i6th I counted 160 spots in eight groups; but the air was 

 not so good as the 17th, which doubtless prevented several of the least, ones 

 from being seen. I did not make repeated observations through the day — 

 the 1 6th — and thus missed seeing the phenomena of most interest. But I con- 

 gratulate friend Larkin, whose energy was crowned with such grand success. In 

 January (this year) I only observed the Sun on five days. The spots were pretty 

 well distributed through the month, and no indication of any great show was 

 seen. The greatest number was iifty -seven in five groups, on the 30th. In view- 

 ing the Sun I nearly always use a magnifying power of 100 with reflecting-prism- 

 eyepiece, on 4.6-inch objective by A. Clark & Sons. I generally observe about 

 eight or nine o'clock in the morning. 



In the fore part of February, about thirty spots were visible. On the 8th I 

 counted 100; most of them in SW. quadrant. After the middle of the month 

 they waned a good deal, and only seven were seen on the first of March. They 

 increased to about seventy-five on the 19th; then fell off to thirty by the last of 

 the month. April soon developed great solar activity. On the 14th seventy-five 

 spots were counted through very poor air. My record says: " Four spots quite 

 large; many others very prominent." Then came the outburst alluded to above, 

 when one or two spots were easily visible without any telescope. And yet this 

 show — especially in number of spots — is small as compared with the preceding 

 sun-spot maximum, in 1870. For, on August 27th that year, I counted 640 sun- 

 spots with the 100 eye-piece and 950 with a power of 200; and through a rather 

 poor air at that. On April 30th eighteen little spots constituted the show, with 

 pretty good air. Next day a large spot appeared at the east edge. The Sun's 

 rotation made it appear to move across the solar disc and disappear at the west 

 edge in twelve days. May 17th, 150 spots, one of them 10,000 miles in diame- 

 ter, and visible to the naked eye. Two weeks later only three spots visible. 

 Another fortnight brought on seventy-five — all in one group SW. of centre, except 

 ten. The show held on pretty well till about the 9th day of July, when four little 

 spots were all that marred a clear whiteness of the Sun's face. But in six days a 

 number of new spots had formed, making a row of four groups across the Sun. 

 Quite a show continued for three weeks. But on the 7th day of August (inst.) 

 only three little spots lingered very close to the west edge of the Sun. As they 

 would pass the Sun's margin by the morrow, there was a fair prospect of August 



