Meteors of November Uth-lAth, 1870. 31 



As on the preceding morning, the moonlight was very bright. 

 In the earlier part of the watch there was an aurora, with 

 streamers reaching up half or two-thirds of the way to Polaris. 



We called those meteors conformable which moved in paths 

 which if produced backward w^ould cut the cur\^e of the sickle 

 in Leo. But in the practical application of this criterion to 

 tracks distant from the radiant it is probable that any which 

 would strike within 10" of the center of the sickle were 

 called conformable. 



Of the apparently conformable meteors, some were undoubt- 

 edly accidentally so. The earth's motion being so nearly to- 

 ward the radiant, a special tendency toward conformability in 

 the sporadic meteors was the result. If we take 15 per cent of 

 the 74 unconformable meteors away from the 79 conformable 

 ones, and add it to the 74, it would be, I think, a tolerable cor- 

 rection for the accidental conformability. The numbers would 

 then stand 85 unconformable meteors, and 68 November mete- 

 ors, or Leonids as they have been called. 



The only meteor seen by me near the sickle would corres- 

 pond to a radiant one-third or one-fourth of the way from 

 gamma to epsihn Leonis. It was moving at a large angle with 

 the line joinine those stars. ,. ,. , -■ 



Many of the conformable meteors had the pecuhar light and 

 train which belong to the Leonids. 



On the morning of the 15th the sky was overcast at JNew 

 Haven. Between eleven and twelve o'clock P. M. of the 14th, 

 however, there were a few breaks in the clouds. I think there 

 could not have been any great number of meteors at that time, 

 as I did not see a single one through the openings 



2. At Brunsivick, Me.— The following is from a letter ot Frot. 

 Rockwood of Bowdoin College. ^^ ^ ^ , , 



"I was abroad from 0" 45'" till nearly 5^ A. M., Nov. 14th and 

 assisted by two members of the senior class of Bowdoin Lo lege, 

 kept a watch and count as given below. The tune is local 

 time, as nearly as could be ascertained. 



l*" 20"' to 2'' 



2h 15m « 2^ 



2h ggm « 31, 



3'' 40™ " 4*^ 



21 



" We saw 10 or 12 more, mostly conformable, at times when 

 not engaged in the formal count. The sky was mostly clear, 

 but sometimes partly obscured by a few light passing clouds. 



" The numbe? of meteors was not large but sufficient to prove 

 the return of the November shower. Especially noticeable 



