16 
REPORT OP THE 
The shower of Meteors on November 27th was carefully watched 
by three of the Assistant Masters of the Friends’ School in 
Boothain, at the Observatory attached to the School. A pro¬ 
jection of twenty-three tracks, recorded by these gentlemen, 
appears in the Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical 
Society for December. About six o’clock in the evening twenty 
per minute were counted ; at seven, about thirty-six ; and at 
eight about fifty. Several hundreds were thus observed and 
counted. The radiant point as thus determined was in a line 
drawn from Cassiopeia through Andromeda to Perseus. The 
concurrent statements of Astronomers founded on calculations 
of the orbits, &c., of Comets seem to indicate that these meteoric 
streams are in the trail of Comets that have passed us onward 
on their journey, and that the recent stream of November 27th 
was following the track of Biela’s Comet. 
In 1851 six gentlemen were appointed to take charge of the 
Observatory ; of these two, Messrs. Harcourt and Newman are 
deceased ; a third. Professor Phillips, no longer resides in York; 
the only addition to the Committee since the above date is that 
of the Secretary of the Society. 
The Society would be glad to find among its Members or 
Associates, young men taking an interest in practical Astronomy, 
that so the excellent Equatorial and Transit Instrument in the 
Observatory might be more frequently and scientifically used. 
The earliest notice of an Observatory in York is that of 
Edward Pigott, Esquire, who in 1787, in a letter to Nevil 
Maskelyne, Astronomer Royal, states the longitude of his 
Observatory at York, as deduced from occultations and from 
Meridian transits of the Moon’s limb, four minutes, twenty-five 
seconds in time, or one degree, six minutes twenty-three seconds. 
West of Oreenwich. With a telescope of two feet focus, and a 
Bird’s eighteen-inch quadrant he determined the latitude of 
York, from thirty-three observations, to be fifty-three degrees, 
fifty-seven minutes, thirty-three seconds. A contemporary 
Review says, in reference to his labours, “other observations and 
improvements do honour to this very excellent and indefatigable 
Astronomer.” 
