Astronomt/ and Meteorology. 295 



Journal for that month, and from it learned for the first time that Mr. 

 Clark had discovered a companion to Sirius. The evening proved a good 

 one, and I readily saw the new companion with my equatorial, bv Fitz, 

 Hi in. aperture and 14 feet focal distance. My assistant, Mr. Wakely, 

 also found the new star on the same evening in my absence. No meas- 

 ures were made at that time, but I find on examining the journal of the 

 observatory the following measures recorded; they were made with a 

 filar micrometer and powers of 200 and 400— Mr. Wakely preferring 

 the former and I the latter : 



March 11, 1862. 85*16' II 8"-95 1 



■M""'l 3, " 85° 04' 6 not taken. 



Since hearing of the existence of this star I have never looked for it in 

 ^ain; its difficulty is not occasioned by faintness, but by its proximity 

 to so bright an object as Sirius. I consider it decidedly a brighter 

 star than either of the close companions in the trapezium of Orion — no 

 reasonable amount of illumination in the field extinguishes it On the 

 6th of April, within five minutes after sunset, I set the circles of the 

 equatorial and found Sirius, the daylight being abundant to read the di- 

 visions, the companion was then quite distinctly visible; and on the 10th 

 of April Mr. Wakely's measures were taken by daylight. 



From these circumstances I should be inclined to tliink this new star 

 ^anable, since it has hitherto escaped the scrutiny of many observers 

 armed with sufficient optica! power to see it; or perhaps it must be 

 ^^^d to the long list of evidences, that it requires a far greater power to 

 '^lake a new discovery than to recognize it when known. 



New York, July 28, 1862. 



,*. The Meteors of August Wth, 1862.— It is probable that the full moon 

 .u — , .. . . . — :-,i i.„„ ;"^"-<■"red to a great 



(photometric especlallyrwhixih confer special value upon the pL 

 a«. exhibited through a screen of mild light just sufficient to oblil 

 5'nt lines and leave none visible but the stronger and more u.n,.«uu 

 file records which have thus far reached us the present month come from 

 he observers, Mr. B. V. Marsh and Mr. F. W. Russell. The station of the 

 ^ter the present year was Winchendon, Mass., lat. 42M0 , Ion. 72 12'. 

 ^« remark, in anticipation of the observations given below, two pomts 

 especially :-_ ^ 



^irst. The radiant on the morning of the 9th, although^determmed by 

 ^"'y a few flights, ia stated decidedly as a circle of " 5 diameter, m- 

 *>dmg delta Cassiopeia." But on the morning of the 10th it was "m 

 ^- R- 41° 40', and N. P. D. 35° 15'." This change of position, a though 

 «^cesaive, coincides-io a near parallelism-with the changes marked and 

 *"ggested, as an invariable phase of these phenomena, upon our frag- 



