THE GREAT METEOR OF FEBRUARY 22nd, 1909. 



BY MR. B. T. ROWSWELL. 



Residents in the Channel Islands, in common with the 

 dwellers along the south coast of England and the north 

 of France, were privileged to enjoy a magnificent view of the 

 great Meteor of Monday evening, February 22nd, and of the 

 long-lived trail of light it left behind. Had the phenomenon 

 occurred with an overcast sky we shonld have missed what 

 Mr. W. F. Denning, of Bristol, the celebrated observer of 

 comets and meteors has described as " the meteoric spectacle 

 of a generation." But as it fortunately happened the weather 

 was perfect for the observation of celestial phenomena ; we 

 were passing through a delightful interval of cloudless days 

 — in fact the 22nd was the fifth successive day of unbroken 

 sunshine, each of which five days was followed by a clear 

 starlight night. On the evening in question a very light E. 

 breeze prevailed and the moon, a delicate crescent less than 

 two and a half days old, lay low in the S.W. sky. 



The regrettable thing of course in connection with the 

 passage of meteors is that the time of their visibility cannot be 

 foretold. Eclipses of the sun and moon are predicted to 

 the second, every movement of the planets among the starry 

 host is charted long before, and occultations of stars by 

 the moon can be tabulated years in advance if necessary, 

 but the day and hour on which a magnificent meteor will 

 flash through our sky no man knoweth or can venture to 

 predict. Without the slightest warning of its approach the 

 celestial visitor is in our midst, and before we have time 

 to realize the fact it is gone — streak and all as a rule. 



The most that astronomers can do in connection with 

 shooting stars is to say that on certain days of the year 

 the earth, in its revolution round the sun, is likely to 

 encounter a larger number of these little bodies than at other 

 times, so that a careful watch on these well-known dates 

 may result in something out of the ordinary being seen — 

 perhaps a shower of fiery trails, or, it may be, a large 

 meteor. Owing to the fact that these several known meteor 

 [1909]. 



