462 The November Meteor-Shower at Glasgow. 



The object of disposing of the radiant point at the early 

 stage of the shower so as to leave the remainder of the night, 

 and the principal part of the shower for the more important 

 observations, put an end for the time to the experiments with 

 the spectroscope, which it was intended to have renewed if the 

 shower had not exhausted itself before a sufficient number of 

 meteor tracks for the purpose of fixing the radiant point had 

 been recorded. The shower increased in intensity until about 

 ten minutes and twenty minutes past one o'clock, at which 

 time fifty-six and fifty-seven meteors were counted by one 

 observer, or almost exactly double the number counted at one 

 o'clock, and at half-past one o'clock ; the display then ceased 

 as suddenly as it began; and an interval of three minutes 

 occurred from lh. 57m. 30s. to 2h. 0m. 31 s., in which no meteor 

 as bright as a second magnitude star (so far as my own tole- 

 rably open view of the sky extended) made its appearance. 

 At 2h. 30m. the number counted by one observer was also very 

 small, being only one per minute, and long before this time 

 the " Great November shower of 1866 " had obviously passed 

 away, and was gone for ever from the field of calculation and 

 prediction into the domain of history ! 



At 2h. 14m. a.m., a meteor, three times a bright as Jupiter, 

 shot in the southern sky from between a and 6 Geniinorum to 

 2° above Aldebaran, leaving a streak, which like previous 

 bright streaks was divided into two parts. The end-half, ex- 

 tending from iota Tauri to Aldebaran, curved itself northwards 

 at the ends, and then collected itself into a knot, which drifted 

 southwards to the three head stars of Orion, where it disap- 

 peared. The total period of visibility of this streak was five 

 minutes. 



Another meteor, which must have been a large fire-ball, 

 but which the Observatory buildings unfortunately hid from 

 our view, appeared at 2h. 41m. a.m. Shortly afterwards we 

 perceived its streak, bent in the form, and with the appearance 

 of a red hot horse-shoe suspended in the sky, between the stars 

 e, j£ of the Great Bear. The open ends of this singular foot- 

 print (for so it appeared) of the meteor gradually widened out 

 for fifteen minutes, (during which the streak continued visible) 

 and the apex of the shoe became pointed, and drew off 

 towards the south. Just before disappearance the stars form- 

 ing the square of Ursa Major appeared clipped by a gigantic 

 calipers of which the point or hinge was at the stars v £ upon 

 the Bear's hind-foot. 



A number of matters yet remained to be decided regarding 

 the white, yellow, and purple colours of the meteor-streaks, the 

 prevailing yellow or orange colour of the heads, and other 

 important characters of which the use of the spectroscope might 



