5 O (*■! 1 3 



1854.] 



METEORS AND FALLING STARS. 



209 



tf|e dCannfo StoimwL 



TORONTO, APRIL, 1854. 



Meteors ami Failing-Stars* 



Read before the Canadian Institute, February 4th, by T. Jlenniny, Esq.* 



SIIOOTIXG-STAKS. 



The more important questions relating' to shooting-stars, are 

 the smaller size of the meteois, their infinitely greater frequency, 

 the arcs ihey describe, their divergence or point of departure, 

 their frequent occurrence in showers, and the periodicity of cer- 

 tain of these phenomena. We can touch but very slightly upon 

 any of these interesting points. Falling-stars are distinguished 

 by most observers into those that fail separately and in small 

 numbers, and those that come in swarms or showers of many 

 thousands. The former are said to fall eporadically ; the latter 

 which the Arabian writers compare to swarms of locusts, are 

 periodic in their visits and move in streams, generally in a 

 parallel direction, proceeding from one or more points of diverg- 

 ence. Olbers gives five or six as the mean number of meteors 

 which can be reckoned hourly in the range of vision of one per- 

 son on ordinary occasions; Quetelet gives eight. Julius Schmidt, 

 of the Bonn Observatory, an observer long accustomed to astro- 

 nomical accuracy, states in a letter lately written to Humboldt, 

 that the mean number of sporadic shooting-stars observed in an 

 hour on ordinary occasions is from four to Jive. Of the periodic 

 meteors, there may be expected on the average in each hour 

 above thirteen or fifteen. The most remarkable of the periodic 

 falls are those which occur from the 12th to the 14th November, 

 and on the 10th August, the festival of St. Lawrence, "whose 

 'fiery tears' were noticed in former times in a Church Calendar 

 of England, no less than in old traditionary legends, as a meteo- 

 rological event of constant occurrence." Although several remark- 

 able falls on the night between the 12th and 13th November had 

 been noted, such as the splendid one in 1799, described by Hum- 

 boldt, and which had been seen in America from the equator to 

 New Herrnhut in Greenland [Cosmos, vol. iv., p. 216), also in 

 1818, 1822, 1823, 1831, and 1832, still, the connection existing 

 between these falls and the recurrence of certain da} x s was un- 

 thought of. The magnificent shower of 1833, when the stars 

 fell "like flakes of snow,'' 240,000 having fallen during a period 

 of nine hours, and was visible from Jamaica to Boston. Similar 

 streams, of somewhat less intensity, were observed in the United 

 States in 1834, 1835, and 183G, of which very interesting accounts 

 are given in the 27th, 29th, and 31st volumes of Silliman's Jour- 

 nal, by Olmsted and Palmer, of Yale College, who were perhaps 

 the first to detect the periodical character of this fall. The next 

 most celebrated fall is that of the 10th of August The frequency 

 of meteors in the month of August was noticed by Muschenbroek 

 as early as 1762, but their periodic return about St. Lawrence's 

 Day was first shown by Quetelet, Olbers, and Beuzenberg. 

 Several other periods, however, have since been added to this 

 number, making the list stand thus: — 



January: between the 1st and 3rd. (Somewhat doubtful.) 



April : 18th or 20th. (?) (Arago was the first to call attention to this 

 as a recurring phase. Great streams : 25th April, 1095 ; 22nd 

 April, 1800; 20th April, 1803.— Cosmos, vol. i., p. 125-6.) 



* Continued from page 191. 



Vol. II., No. 9, Apkil, 1854. 



Mat: 26th. (?) 



July: 26th to 30th. (Quetelet: maximum properly between the 27tb 

 and 29th July.) 



August: 10th. (Muschenbroek and Brandes.) 



October: 16th to 18th, according to Professor Lowe; 19th, and the 

 days about the 26th, says Quetelet. 



November : 12th to 14th ; very seldom the 8th or 10th. 



December: 9th to 12th: but in 1798, according to Brandes' obser- 

 vation, the 6th and 7th ; Herrick, in New Haven, 1838, the 7th to 

 8th ; Heis (Aix la Chapelle), 1847, the 8th and 10th. 



Eight or nine epochs of periodic meteoric streams are thus 

 recommended to the attention of observers. 



The hourly variation in the number of stars observed to fall 

 during the night is a very remarkable thing, and one very diffi- 

 cult to account for. A very important paper upon this point 

 was presented lately to the Institute at Paris, by M. de Coulvier 

 Gravier, a plain country gentleman, who has devoted thirteen 

 years to the study of falling- stars, with the view principally of 

 being able to predict therefrom the changes in the atmosphere. 

 By the advice of M. Arago, he commenced in 1840 to keep a 

 journal, which, by the personal co-operation of the celebrated 

 astronomer Saigney, has been rendered a valuable acquisition to 

 astronomical science. From 1841 to 1845, 5312 shooting-stars 

 were observed in 1034 hours. An analysis of these observations 

 prove that they appeared, with slight exceptions, in increased 

 numbers as the night advanced towards morning. The number 

 seen hourly stand thus : 



From 6 to 7 o'clock, p. m 8-1 



" 7 to S " " 4-5 



8 to 9 " " 3-7 



" 9 to 10 " " 4-10 



" 10 to 11 " " 4-5 



" 11 to 12 " " 50 



" 12 to 1 " a.m 5-8 



" 1 to 2 " " 0-4 



" 2 to 3 " " 7-1 



" 3 to 4 " " 7-6 



" 4 to 5 " " 6-0 



" 5 to 6 " " 8-2 



His observations between the 10th and 11th August, 1853, cor- 

 respond with this. The hourly number of stars seen by him on the 

 9th was 49, and on the 10th 56. Between 9 and 10 o'clock p.m. on 

 the 9lhhesaw 36, but between 1 and 2 a.m. 56. Between 12 and 

 1 o'clock on the night of the lOth-llfh, 78 were seen, and 88 

 from 1 to 2. The direction w : as quite uniform, the radiant being 

 near Cassiopeia. Mr. Herrick, at New Haven, on 10th August, 

 1853, saw from 12 to 3^ o'clock, 388 stars, being 110 from 12 

 to 1, 115 from 2 to 3, and 44 from 3 to 3-25. Apparent radiant 

 place did not change its position among the stars. Another 

 result of M. Gravier's tables is the fact that the light of the moon 

 does not efface more than three-fifths of the aggregate number 

 of the stars thus seen. Again : while shooting stars appearing 

 in the north of the hemisphere are not so numerous as those 

 from the south, it is the same with the stars from the west as 

 compared with the abundance of their appearance in the east. 

 M. Gravier also ascertained that those stars comprised between 

 the N.N.E. and the N.E. make the longer mean course, viz., 

 11°3', while those between the SAY. and W.S.W. take the 

 shortest mean course, viz., 11° 30'. 



With regard to the point of divergence it may be necessary to 

 state a few facts, as on this has been grounded an argument for 



