262 



moon nearly full, no observations were made. The evening of the 

 9th, however, was distinguished by all the peculiarities hitherto 

 noticed in the August period. The following table exhibits a classifi- 

 cation of the meteors from memoranda, concerning each meteor, made 

 at the time of its appearance. 





Bid 



£ J- 



_a 



o 



£ 



o 





2 °"3 



a "-i 



o 



>> 



3 



£> 



Meteors of 9th August, 





g -g 



■g _; 



s . 



'? 



£ 



1840. 



g ^g . 



m a ^ 



£1 



'8 '3 



.2 



'8 



Comparative Brilliancy. 



™-° a 

 o - a 

 £ *^ o 



oo 5 *" 



CO o © 



III 



o 8 



°^ 



a « 

 .2 >- 

 <-> o 



o 



o 



c 

 _o 







O c G 



S'o 



as a> 



m a 



oS.H 







1-1*^3 o 







a o 



*-* rf 





Ooo S 



o §£ 



£i 



ai 



>3 3 



a 2 



Thrice that of Jupiter 



1 



1 



o 

 40 



s 

 4.5 



o 

 20 



1.7 



Twice ,, 



6 







35 



3.6 



15 



1.0 



Equal to ,, 



12 



2 



25 



2.5 



12 



0.8 



First magnitude 



12 



14 



20 



1.8 



9 



0.6 



Second ,, 



32 



17 



12 



1.2 



5 



0.5 



Third „ 



5 



33 



7 



0.9 



4 



0.4 



Below third ,, 



none 



36 



6 



0.6 



4 



0.4 



From an inspection of the table, Mr. Walker remarked, it will 

 readily appear, that these meteors differ from ordinary shooting stars, 

 in their greater brilliancy, longer apparent paths, and the greater dura- 

 tion of their trains. Their most important peculiarity, however, is 

 the tendency of their apparent paths towards a common point of con- 

 vergence in the celestial sphere, or in other words, their apparent 

 divergence from a common radiant point near the head of Perseus. 



The existence of a common radiant point near y Leonis, for the great dis- 

 play of meteors, November 12th, 1833, was noticed by Messrs. Olmsted, Twi- 

 ning, Aiken, Riddle, and others. The same maybe inferred from the descrip- 

 tions of Humboldt and Ellicott, in 1799; of Briggs, and others, in 1832; and it 

 has been manifest in ev T ery return of the November shower witnessed since. 



The attention of observers, Mr. Walker observed, was first called to the 

 August period, by Quetelet, in 1836; and in 1837, precise observations were 

 made at the Berlin and Breslaw Observatories. These were reduced by the 

 formulas given by Mr. Erman, in No. 385 of Schumacher's Astronomische 

 Nachrichten, and have determined with precision the common point of con- 

 vergence for August 10th, 1837. In the same year, Mr. Forshey, then Profes- 

 sor of Mathematics in Jefferson College, Mississippi, noticed, about the mid- 

 dle of August, a great number of Meteors, originating chiefly about the region 

 of Cassiopea. It appears, also, that Mr. SchaefFer,* of New York, searching 

 for a radiant point on the 9th of August, 1837, placed the same near the north 



* Silliman's Journal, Vol. 33, p. 134. 



