Recent contributions to Astro- Meteorology. 299 
The comet 1862 III —— called 1862 II by not count- 
ing Encke’s comet), which se thus to have such interest- 
ing relations with the yer ie was discovered on the 
evening of the 18th of July, 1862, by . P. Tuttle at Cam- 
ridge, Mass., and a. little later on the same evening by Mr. 
Thomas Simons at Albany, N. Y as first seen in Kurope 
on the 22d of July, and remained visible more than two months. 
At its brightest its nucleus was equal to a star of the second or 
third magnitude, and its tail, according to some observers, was 
as much as 25° in length. The e changes that took place in the 
coma and tail were quite remarkable, and — carefully ob- 
served. They will now possess a ouble intere 
The telescopic comet 1866 I was di scovered «4 Tempel on the 
19th of December, 1865, and was visible about a month. 
minimum distance from the earth’s orbit was ‘00660, about two 
and a half times the distance from the earth to the moon. - This 
distance for Tuttle’s comet is 00472, or about 430,000 miles. 
4. Age of the November group of shooting stars. 
In the Paris Academy of Sciences, Jan. 21st, 1867, LeVerrier 
spoke of the November meteors (Comptes Rendus, Ixiv, 94). 
Inasmuch as the group is not a complete ring, he argues that 
it is of comparatively recent formation, having come into the 
solar i das and been turned into its present orbit within a few 
centuri 
a body coming from a great distance gel so havi - a 
great velocity in the vicinity of the earth could not be throw 
into an orbit nearly cireular by the feeble action of the lower 
planets. Computation leads to this result, which is fully con- 
firmed by the fact that the swarm sooty every 33 years near the 
earth — yet returns at regular interv 
uming then an orbit whose hanes is 334 years, whose 
perihelion distance is 0-989, viz., the seal distance from the 
sun on the 14th of November, and assu ing the positi 
— - be long. 142°, N. lat. 84°, he Slepates correspond 
elem 
The gi gro up, when it came into the system, could not be thrown, 
into its present orbit except by a powerful perturbing cause, *s 
as was the case with the comet of 1770. Moreover, comets so 
acted sc that the newly acquired orbit has a sm mall erihelion 
extends to the orbit of Uranus and a very little eae 
to be another 
7 Spier of Marathon, N. Y., claims to have seen it two or three days 
discovery, supposing it 
earlier, bu’ no announcemen' ent of the 
comet,” 
& 
