Dreyer— Ort the First Comet o/1870. 255 



XLII. E'OTE ON THE MeTEOES CONNECTED WITH THE FlEST CoMET OP 



1870. By J. L, E. Dketee, M. A. 



[Read, June 23, 1879.] 



In IS'ovember, 1873, I published in the Astronomische NacTiricTiten, 

 vol. Ixxxii. ISTo. 1963, a note on some minor radiant points of shoot- 

 ing stars which are in activity during the beginning of August, and 

 "which seemed to be connected with the first comet of 1870. Por this 

 comet I had the year before computed the orbit, based on a discussion 

 of all the available observations,^ and from this orbit I found the ra- 

 diant point of the comet to be 



a -27° 51', 8 = + 48° 24', 



while the comet in its descending node (which the earth passes on 

 August 14) was only 0'014 distant from the ecliptic, the mean dis- 

 tance of the earth fi'om the sun being unity. 



This note has apparently not attracted the notice of the committee 

 on luminous meteors of the British Association, as the radiant of the 

 comet I. 1870, in the "Reports" for 1874, 1875, and 1878, is given 

 as a = 43°-5, S = H- 53°, which position, as well as the date (August 

 12), is unquestionably wrong. ^ The conclusions based on this erro- 

 neous radiant point are therefore, of course, also wrong. In my note 

 in the Astron. Nachr. I had only mentioned the following three actu- 

 ally observed radiants of meteors as being in pretty good accordance 

 with the computed radiant of comet I. 1870 : — 



August 3 a = 35° 8 = + 44° Zezioli, 1^0.132 

 „ 11 24 58 „ „ 141 



3-12 31 55 J. Schmidt, „ 46 (A.IS". 1756). 



Since then, however, the following positions of radiant points have 

 been published in the " Eeports " of the British Association : — 



Aug. 10 (1868) a = 33°, 5 = + 59° (Forbes, "Eep.," 1874, p. 334). 

 ,, 9-12 (1872) 33 57 (Italian obs.— see The Observatonj, 



vol. ii. p. 165). 

 ,, 8-11 25 59 (Lorenzoni, "Eep.," 1876, p. 160). 



,, 10 (1876) 33 56 (" Eeport," 1876, p. 154). 



„ (1876) 31 69 (Denning, "Eep.," 1877, p. 176). 



The cluster x Persei (33° + 56°) is often mentioned as a radiant of 

 meteors— e. e. by Mr. Clark of York (" Report " for 1877, p. 158), and 

 by Mr. Denning, who finds a group of stationary meteors at 32° + 57°.^ 



"Whether tbe above radiants are all identical or not, we have here 

 to do with a phenomenon entirely distinct from, though similar to, the 

 great annual star-showers which bear the name of the Perseids, and 



^ Astronomische Nachrichten, Vol. Ixxx. No. 1910. 



2 In a separate copy of the Eeport of tbe committee on luminous meteors for 

 1878 (placed in my hands by Dr. Ball), Prof. Herschel has corrected the position to 

 25°'5 + 45°, which comes nearer to the true position. 



3 "Monthly Notices," E. A. S., xxxix. p. 407. 



B. I. A. PROC.j SEE. II., VOL. III. — SCIENCE. U 



