270 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE METEORS OF AUGUST. 



vatory of the High School, looking at the moon and planets through a telescope. 

 I was courteously received by these strangers, and my proffered aid, in looking 

 out for meteors, kindly accepted by Mr. Walker. 



Some sixteenmeteors were incidentally noticed before observation commenced. 

 All these, with one exception, moved in directions which would converge between 

 Cassiopeia, and the head of Perseus, two originating in the head of Perseus. 

 Three of these meteors were twice as large as Jupiter, six were as bright as 

 Jupiter, and the remainder above stars of the 3rd magnitude, or they must 

 have been obscured by the brightness of the moon. Several had trains, say 

 10° visible at once. Five were visible from 1" to 1.5" after the bodies dis- 

 appeared. There were no explosions. 



At 10, P. M., mean time, our observations commenced for the night. The 

 following is condensed from the minutes. 



From 10 A. 7 m. to 12 h. 18 m. C. G. Forshey observed, S. M. Hamilton recorded. 

 " 12A. 18m. to 13A. 56m. S, C. Walker. " " " 



" 14/?. Om. tol6/t. 6 m. C. G. Forshey observed and recorded. 



From 10 h. 7 m. to 12 h. 18 m., mean time, I observed the meteors, and Mr. 

 S. W. Hamilton recorded. In this interval of 2h. II m., by bright moonlight, 

 I saw twenty-four meteors, of which eighteen were conformable, and fifteen of 

 these had trains. Of the six unconformable, four had no trains. For further 

 particulars, see the table below. No. I. 



From 12 h. 18 m. till the moon set, at 13 A. 56 m., Mr. Walker observed me- 

 teors, and Mr. Hamilton recorded. The minutes, which have been kindly 

 placed at my disposal, show that in 1 h. 38 m., 28 meteors were seen, of which 

 only 3 were unconformahle. 



Messrs. Walker and Hamilton retired at 14 A., and I resumed observation 

 just after the moon set, and continued till IQh. 6 m., an interval of 2 A. 6 m. 

 Daylight terminated my observations at this time. Meanwhile I saw one hundred 

 and three meteors, and in several places noted that half the time was lost from 

 observation, in making my notes. Of these meteors only nine were unconform- 

 able, and they inferior ones. From moon-set to daybreak, an interval of 92 mi- 

 nutes, I recorded eighty-one of the one hundred and three meteors, and have no 

 doubt that the time lost in recording was sufficient to have increased the number 

 to one hundred and fifty. On the usual estimate, that one observer can watch 

 one-sixth of the heavens, the whole number of meteors that fell during that 

 time was about nine hundred, or nearly ten per minute. This result is nearly 



