Abstract
THE DECEMBER METEORIC SHOWER.—Mr. Denning writes that this display was well observed at Bristol on the night following December 13. The early evening was overcast, but after a storm of rain at 10 p.m. the sky cleared, and between loh. 30m. and midnight meteors were observed to be falling at the rate of thirty-five per hour. The moon rose just before 12h., and during the next hour, when her light and films of thin cloud obscured some of the smaller meteors, the horary rate decreased to seventeen. There were two radiants, viz. at 114° + 3341/4° (eighteen meteors) and at 107°+ 24° (twelve meteors), but the marked differences in aspect of the members of the two streams were very pronounced. The first-named radiant represented the true Geminids, and they are of moderate speed, with short paths sometimes stellar in aspect, and of a sparkling1 silvery-white colour.
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Our Astronomical Column . Nature 104, 400–401 (1919). https://doi.org/10.1038/104400a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/104400a0