416 H. A. Newton— Biela Meteors of Nov. 27th, 1885. 



Place. 



Observer. 





R. A. 



Dec. 



Bristol, 



Denning 



(26) 



27 



43 



(< 



a 



a 



26 



43-5 



a 



a 



(27) 



24 



43*5 



a 



a 



a 



23 



45 



ii 



it, 



(28) 



22 



43-5 



u 



a 



(30) 



21 



42-5 



Harrow, 



Tup man, 





27 



44 



« 



a 





22-5 



45-5 



Greenwich, 



Nash, 





20 



49 



Stony hurst, 



Perry, 





24 



41 



Oxford. 



Stone, 





22-5 



42 



c< 



Wickkani, 



10-3 



52 



a 



Plummei 



5 



21 



45 



u 



Jenkins, 





23 



46 



Dun Echt, 



Copelancl 



I, 



25-9 



46-4 



Dundee, 



Smieton, 





21 



44 



Glasgow, 



Grant, 





24 



45-5 



Cape Town, 



Gill, 





39 



27 



New Haven, 



Newton, 





near 



y An dr. 



Cambridgeport 



, Sawyer, 





22-5 



42-5 



Princeton, 



Young, 





27-5 



43-5 



The object of forming this table is not to obtain the best 

 possible observed place of the radiant. If this had been in- 

 tended, there are many indications that some observations are 

 entitled to considerable confidence and that some are not much to 

 be relied on. The object is rather to bring out distinctly the 

 fact that the radiant was not a mathematical point nor even a 

 very small area. A considerable number of the observers dis- 

 tinctly stated that the tracks did not radiate from a point. 

 Some thought there were two or more centers of dispersion. 

 The same want of strict radiation from a center has been 

 noticed in nearly every star-shower since 1833, the time when 

 radiation was first noticed, and is shown equally when the 

 tracks near the radiant are charted, and when the observer 

 watches the stars near the radiant for the very purpose of 

 deciding this question. Of course tracks beginning at a great 

 distance from the radiant are of little use in determining the 

 size and shape of the radiant area. 



There are two corrections that should in strictness be applied 

 to all these assigned positions, one for the zenithal attraction, 

 and one for the observer's motion with the earth's rotation. 

 The Biela meteors have a slow initial velocity relative to 

 the earth, equal to 9*9 miles a second, and the same is in- 

 creased before the earth's surface is reached to about 12 

 miles a second. Not a little deviation from the original di- 

 rection is by reason of this slow velocity caused by the 

 earth's attraction. The deviation is in the vertical plane, and 

 is a function of the zenith distance very much like refraction. 



