4 H. A. Newton — Relation of the Orbits of 



The observations have been treated graphically. They do 

 not demand nor do they admit of greater accuracy in methods 

 of discussion than can be used in graphic processes, and these 

 processes have many advantages over numerical computations. 

 A stereographic projection of tvro hemispheres was prepared 

 and printed, upon which there were three sets of coordinate 

 lines from three sets of poles. The three sets of points were 

 the angles of triquadrantal triangles. Thus the lines were 

 drawn to represent at intervals of 10° the distances and direc- 

 tions from the poles P. P, S, E, and G, Q, (fig. 1, p. 7). In the 

 engraved figure these coordinate lines are omitted. The common 

 diameter of the two hemispheres ESE was made to represent 

 the ecliptic, and the sun was placed at the center or, at the 

 edge of one of the hemispheres. The point P would then be 

 the poles of the ecliptic, and if S be the place of the sun the 

 earth'.- quit will be Q. and the earth's goal G-. 



To treat any single meteor a large celestial globe was first 

 set for the time and place of the fall. Upon the globe the 

 celestial latitude and longitude of the zenith and of the west- 

 point were then measured The day of the year gave the sun's 

 longitude. The zenith and west-point could then be marked 

 upon the chart, after which it was easy to draw the circles rep- 

 resenting the meridian and the prime vertical. The stereo- 

 graphic projection was peculiarly advantageous in this work as 

 all circles are represented by circles, and angles are conserved 

 in the projection. The effort was then made to mark upon 

 the chart the meteor's relative quit as accurately as the obser- 

 vations permit, or rather to describe an area within which the 

 quit was probably or certainly located. 



Some of the 116 meteorite quits have been heretofore fairly 

 well determined by other persons, or they can be so deter- 

 mined. This is the case with the meteors of Agram, Weston, 

 Orgeuil. Pultusk. Iowa, Rochester, Esthervillle, Krahenberg, 

 Khairpur. Tendome, etc. Eor other cases we are able by com- 

 paring the various statements of observers to locate approxi- 

 mately the relative quit. But for a considerable number of 

 the falls we have to be content with the simple statement that 

 the stones came from the north, or from the northeast, or from 

 the south-southeast, or from some other similarly defined di- 

 rection. When this has been the case I have taken a point 20° 

 above the horizon in the direction indicated, and considering 

 this as the center of an area of considerable size within which 

 the quit was probably located, have treated the point itself as 

 the meteor's quit. 



These observations of direction in some cases will be in 

 error, or will be perverted in reporting, as every one who has 

 tried to reconcile numerous accounts of a meteor has unpleas- 



