3. The August Shower in 1870.-In the 'Meteorological Bulletin' of the Moncalieri Observatory for October 1870, the first results of observations in Piedmont on the star-shower of the 10th and 11th of August last are communicated. As already observed in the last Report, the frequency of the meteors did not exceed the ordinary average of the shower, and they were somewhat more frequent on the night of the 10th than on that of the 11th of August. They appeared to proceed from several radiant-points, besides the principal one of the shower, in Perseus. Among the contemporaneous radiant-points, T,, F, (the former occurring in August in Pegasus, and the latter usually appearing in Auriga in the latter part of September) were observed to be conspicuous.

4. The November Shower in 1870.-The preparations made for recording the return of the November meteors in 1870 were in a great measure disappointed by the cloudy state of the sky at several of the English stations.

The following letter from Mr. Backhouse announced a more favourable condition of the sky at Sunderland on the morning of the 14th of November than that which prevailed at Manchester, Birmingham, York, and London, where no meteors of the shower could be observed ::

"Between 2h 20m and 3h 42m A.M., on the 14th, I watched for meteors; I only saw seven in fifty-six minutes, watching in a cloudless sky. Of these only four belonged to the shower. I enclose the particulars. I did not watch much on the morning of the 15th. It was mostly cloudy, and I saw no meteors."-Of the conformable meteors two left trains, one was stationary close to, and the others radiating very nearly from, the small star a Leonis. The unconformable meteors appeared with short courses in and near the constellation Taurus, and of these one was as bright as Sirius. It was of a yellow colour, describing a path of 3°, near e Arietis, from the direction of the Pleiades, and it left no streak.

Five meteors, from undetermined radiant-points, were seen through breaks in the clouds by Mr. J. E. Clark, at York, on the morning of the 14th, and two Leonids of some brightness, in a watch of one hour (interrupted by the clouds), on the morning of the 15th of November.

On the morning of the 14th of November the sky was clear at Glasgow from 2h 10m until 5h 15m A.M., and twenty-six meteors were recorded by Mr. A. S. Herschel, of which twenty-one were conformable. Of the latter the paths of eleven, prolonged backwards, crossed, and of five passed close to the curve of Leo's sickle. Seven meteors left persistent streaks, which were faintly visible in the full moonlight. The proportion of magnitudes of the conformable meteors was :

..................

6

7

5

Of meteors equal to or brighter than a 1st-mag.*; 2nd do.; 3rd do.; 4th do. Number of meteors seen 3 Meteors of smaller magnitudes were rendered invisible by the moon's light; and the most striking conformable meteor of the shower, recorded at 4h 25m A.M., was as bright as Sirius. It described a course of 25°, directed nearly from μ Leonis, in three-quarters of a second, and left a broad streak on its whole path for two seconds. The following numbers of conformable and unconformable meteors were recorded in the half-hours ending at h m h m h m h m 3 10 3 40 4 10 4 40 6

1870, November 14th, A.M..
Conformable meteors

Unconformable meteors

h m
2 40
I

4

2

5

4

h m

5 10

3

In the first and last half-hours the sky was partially concealed by clouds; at 3h 38m A.M. a group of three first-, second-, and third-magnitude meteors,

leaving streaks directed from Leo, appeared almost together. In the next half-hour two meteors, directed apparently from Cor Caroli, appeared to be unconformable to the Leo radiant. The remaining unconformable meteors all proceeded from the direction of a radiant-point in Taurus. At 5h 15m A.M. the sky became completely overcast; but a shooting-star from the direction of Leo, of first magnitude, was observed by Mr. R. Maclure, at 6h 20m A.M., through an opening of the clouds. On the morning of the 15th the sky at Glasgow was again completely overcast.

On the evening of the 13th a bright meteor (described in the above List) was seen at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and three vivid flashes of light, between 12h 15m and 12h 30m A.M., on the 14th, which must have proceeded from large meteors, at an altitude of about 20°, due S. were seen through the clouds, which from this time overspread the sky during the remainder of the night. On the morning of the 15th a clear sky enabled Mr. Glaisher's staff of observers to make continuous observations of the meteors visible in the bright moonlight, from midnight until 5h 33m A.M., when the sky was again quite obscured by clouds. Fifty-three meteors were recorded, in this interval by the five observers, the apparent paths of fortyfive of which were traced upon a map. Of the meteors so recorded, twentyeight proceeded from the usual radiant-point in Leo, eight from a radiantpoint situated apparently not far from Cor Caroli, seven from a radiant-point between Taurus and Musca, and two meteors from uncertain radiant-points. The following were the numbers of the meteors observed in the successive half-hours ending at

hm h hm h hm h hm h hm
12 30 I I 30 2 2 30 3 3 30 4
2 2 3 2 2 I 7 6

4 30

5

5 30 Total 8 7 13 53

1870, November 15th, A.M.... Number of meteors seen...... A very beautiful meteor of bluish-white colour, and of the apparent size and brightness of Jupiter, proceeding apparently from the direction of the radiantpoint in Musca, descended towards the east, at 4h 45m 25 A.M., through an are of more than 25°, in about three seconds, leaving a streak of light upon its course. Most of the conformable meteors left a persistent train, but none of those observed rivalled this fine meteor in brightness or in length of course. The proportion of apparent magnitudes of the remaining meteors, seen during the watch is shown in the following list :—

24

17

= 3rd do. Total

5

52

Brighter than first-magnitude stars; = 1st do.; = 2nd do.; Number of meteors seen...... 6 From these descriptions of the meteor-shower it appears that, on both the mornings of the 14th and 15th of November, the number of the conformable meteors considerably exceeded that of the unconformable meteors which appeared during the hours of the continued watch; but that the scale of the shower, as it was observed in England, was very far inferior to the brightness with which it was recorded in the preceding year.

At Tooting, near London, Mr. H. W. Jackson observed on the mornings of the 14th, 15th, and 16th of November, and noted one shooting-star on the night of the 13th, but failed, on account of haze and clouds, followed by rain during the morning of the 14th, in securing another observation. Between midnight and 1h 55m A.M., on the morning of the 15th, eight meteors were carefully observed and mapped, and four or five smaller meteors were seen, all but two of which (of short course, near the radiant-point in Taurus) were conformable to the Leo radiant-point. Of these, the brightest, at 1h 5m A.M., which left a long streak, was simultaneously observed at Greenwich. Of the two unconformable meteors, that which appeared at 12h 7m A.M. was white

and nearly as bright as Jupiter, moving for two seconds in a slightly curved course from to Orionis, and leaving a short streak upon its track. Flashes of faint reddish lightning were perceived at 12h 28m and 12b 53TM A.M. Between 12h 30m and 1h 30m A.M. on the morning of the 16th some meteors were observed, but did not appear to present features worthy of special note. At Newhaven, in the United States, three observers noted, in three hours, thirty-one meteors, of which only six were conformable to the radiant-point in Leo. On the following morning (the 14th) Professor Newton, with five other observers, obtained the following enumeration of the meteors visible in the half-hours ending at 1870, November 14th, A.M. :—

h m h

(1870, November 13th, P.M.... 11 30

Conformable meteors

hm h hm h hm h hm hm

12)

1 30 2 12 9 7 8 10

After 3h 45m the sky was so nearly overcast that regular counting was abandoned, while in open spaces of the sky it was still apparent that up to six o'clock no marked increase in the number of the meteors had taken place. After half-past five, however, the clouds already began more nearly to cover the sky. (American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. i., January 1871.)

5. Meteor-shower of December 12th, 1870.-The state of the sky was not generally favourable for observations, Mr. H. W. Jackson reporting from Louth that on the nights of the 12th and 13th the sky was overcast, with frequent rain from 8h 30m P.M. on the night of the 12th. At Glasgow, York, and Manchester it was equally obscured. At Birmingham Mr. W. H. Wood was more fortunate in securing a short view of the sky on one of the periodic nights, and the following is his description of the shower:

"The overcast state of the skies from the 10th to the 13th permitted only of a partial view of the character of the shower, which occurred during a temporary clearance of the sky for one hour only, from 11h 30m P.M. on the 12th to 12h 30m A.M. on the 13th. Five meteors were recorded in threequarters of an hour, radiating accurately from radiant G ( Geminorum). Meteors white or blue, and trainless (one observer)." A list of the recorded paths, and a description of the meteors seen, accompanies Mr. Wood's report. The position of the radiant-point from which the meteors approximately diverged was near the stars and d, in Gemini.

No observations were recorded, owing to a cloudy state of the sky, on the shower-meteor nights of the 1st and 2nd of January, 1871.

6. Meteor-shower of April 20th, 1871.-The last well-marked appearance of the April meteor-shower, to the annual occurrence of which attention was first drawn by Herrick, in the United States, took place on the morning of the 21st of April, 1863†, when, for a few hours, meteors were observed by Mr. Wood, at Weston-super-Mare, to be as frequent as in a moderately bright August star-shower. Two Julian intervals of four years each having elapsed since that occurrence, the astronomical conditions of its reappearance suggested special preparations and a simultaneous watch, which were accordingly made for its return. Besides the staff of observers at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Mr. Glaisher's son, Mr. James Glaisher, volunteered to take part in the observations at Cambridge, where Professor Adams also offered his aid, to join in recording the shooting-stars which might be visible at the Observatory. The other observers who awaited the display were those who have most frequently assisted the Committee by their recorded observations at Glasgow, York, Manchester, Birmingham, and London. Such, how+ Report for 1863, p. 325.

* In a quarter of an hour.

ever, was the unfavourable state of the sky which prevailed during the forty-eight hours intended to have been devoted to the watch (and which continued to prevent further observations during the last remaining nights of the months of April), that with the exception of a few meteors of the shower observed by Mr. Wood at Birmingham, and of the corresponding group of meteors recorded by Mr. Herschel at Bury St. Edmunds, no unbroken series of observations were received. The sky first became quite clear at the latter place at 9h 30m P.M., and the following numbers of meteors were seen in the half-hours ending at—

h m

3

I 3

h m

12 (12 30 A.M. April 21). Total.

II

6

hh m h h m h 1871, April 20.........P.M. 9 30 10 10 30 II II 30 Number of meteors seen I 25 All but eight of their apparent paths, projected upon a map, when prolonged backwards, pass across a circular area about 15° in width, of which the centre is at a point in R. A. 267°, N. Decl. 35°. Nine of these conformable meteors left bright trains. Of the eight unconformable meteors, four are widely erratic meteors of the same shower, and the remaining four moving in the opposite direction were directed from an unknown radiant-point in the south. The path of one of the latter was remarkably serpentine in the latter portion of the meteor's course. The following are the numbers of meteors of the different magnitudes observed :

As bright as Jupiter or Sirius. As 1st mag. star. 2nd.

3rd. 4th. 5th. Total. 4 25

5

The last meteor was observed at 12h 35m A.M. on the 21st. The sky then rapidly clouding over did not permit the progress of the shower, at Bury St. Edmunds, to be further watched.

night the sky was also cloudy.

On the previous and on the following

At Birmingham Mr. W. H. Wood recorded the appearance of nine shooting-stars between the hours of 10h 20m and 11h 30m P.M. on the night of the 20th of April, five of which were noted in the first, and four in the latter half of the watch; five meteors diverged from the constellation Lyra, three from that of Corona, and the remaining meteor moved transversely to the former ones from the neighbourhood of Polaris. The numbers of meteors seen of different magnitudes were, 1=Sirius, 2=1st mag.*, 1=3rd do., 5=4th do. : total 9 meteors. The brightest meteor of the shower moved with a nucleus of brilliant blue, flickering light, about the brightness of Sirius, from the direction of Corona. Soon after half-past 11 o'clock the sky became overcast, and remained so at 1 and 2h A.M. on the morning of the 21st, when regular watching was abandoned. The maximum, as far as could be ascertained from these observations, occurred after midnight on the morning of the 21st; the rate of apparition for one observer, while the sky was clear, being seven or eight per hour between ten and eleven o'clock, and twelve or fifteen per hour during the half-hour immediately before and that immediately after midnight. Between 11h 15m and 11h 45m P.M. on the night of the 21st, Mr. Wood observed no meteors at Birmingham, although one-third of the sky was visible, quite clear, through the broken clouds. The appearance of the April shower in this year appears, therefore, to have taken place on the date and at about the hour expected for its return, from the time of its last conspicuous appearance.

7. Meteor-shower of July 1871.-At sea, between Norway and England, Mr. A. S. Herschel watched for the periodical meteors (first pointed out by Capocci, at Naples) on the night of the 16th of July. The sky was perfectly clear from 11 P.M. until 2 A.M. on the morning of the 17th of July, and

seventeen meteors were observed, six in the first, six in the second, and five in the third hour of the watch. On the night of the 17th the sky was again clear; but three meteors only were observed in three-quarters of an hour, between 10h 55m and 11h 40m P.M. The meteors observed on both nights were small, and appeared generally with short courses near a radiantregion around Herculis, from which they appeared to diverge. The number of meteors seen of the different magnitudes were, 2=1st mag.*, 4=2nd, 4=3rd, 6=4th, 4-5th: total 20 meteors seen in 3 hours by one observer, in a clear sky, with no moon.

V. PAPERS RELATING TO METEORIC ASTRONOMY.

1. Under the title Alcuni Resultati Preliminari tratti dalle osservazioni di Stelle Cadenti publicate nelle Effemeride degli anni 1868, 1869, 1870;' Professor Schiaparelli communicates, in connexion with the three Catalogues of Shooting-Stars observed in Italy, published in the Ephemeris of the Milan Observatory for the years 1868, 1869, and 1870, a first report on the radiantpoints obtained by mapping the meteor-tracks contained in them from January to June. For a convenient nomenclature of the radiant-points, the year is divided into seventy-two pentads, of five days each, of which six are contained in every month. While the first five pentads in every month are complete, the sixth, and last, consists of three, four, five, or six days, according to the length of the month to which it belongs. Since, however, the observations for a single night of the year only (collected from all the years) are combined together to detect the radiant-points, of which several may occur in each pentad, the letters of the alphabet added to the Roman number of a pentad (thus, XIX. a) designate the radiant-points in those pentads in the order in which they were successively discovered by Professor Schiaparelli. Besides a strict separation of meteors observed on one from those observed on the next following or on the next preceding night, to avoid the risk of confusing together meteors belonging to different radiant-points under a false assemblage of two radiant-points into a single meteoric-shower, Professor Schiaparelli distinguishes as different meteor-currents those whose radiant-points, as shown by laying down the recorded paths, are more than 10° apart. The precision with which the radiant-points must be determined (from the shooting-star observations of a single night) is necessarily very great, in order that this rule may be rigorously applied. Even omitting the errors of observation (which are frequently considerable), it is found that different meteoric showers present different characters of radiation. In some the radiant-region is small, and the meteor-tracks prolonged backwards meet nearly in a point, when it is called "exact"; in others it is larger, the meteortracks prolonged backwards crossing each other in a confused manner over a considerable apparent space, in which case it is called "diffuse." The shooting-stars which make their appearance within the radiant-region (when this is rather large) may appear to be moving in every variety of opposite directions, and their paths are usually noticed to be extremely foreshortened by perspective in this position. Lastly, if they diverge from two or more points the character of the radiation is said to be double or multiple; and it appears probable, on certain theoretical grounds, which will be shortly stated, that a diffuse radiant-region in general arises from the close assemblage of many radiant-points together into a multiple group. The November meteorshower is an example of exact, and the August star-shower an instance either of multiple or of diffuse radiation, according to the various descriptions of the observers who have examined the direction of its radiant-point most