Abstract
A CONSIDERABLE number of exact determinations of the place of the radiant-point of the shooting stars recorded during the recent meteoric shower have during the last few days continued to reach me, of which the accompanying general list and a rough outline map (Fig. 2) will, perhaps, best,convey the general result at present arrived at regarding this important point in connection with the astronomical character of its appearance. That the stream of meteors, originating in the materials of Biela's comet, pursue, in a current of great length and thickness, nearly the same orbit as that of the comet round the sun, may be clearly concluded from the many observations of the meteor shower which have now been brought together. Among the most interesting of the descriptions relating to this subject is a report by Dr. Heis, of Münster, in Westphalia, of the observations made at that observatory between 8h. and 9h. P.M., and of others which he received from distant places, of the frequency of the meteors at that and at later periods of the night. The number seen by two observers at Munster, in fifty-three minutes, between 8h. aud 9h. P.M., was 2,200 meteors, 400 of which appeared in the last interval but one of six minutes before 9 o'clock, or about forty-two per minute during the whole time. At the Göttingen Observatory 7,710 meteors were counted in three hours, giving nearly the same average of frequency during the greater portion of the shower. At Svanholmsminde, in the north of Jutland, Mr. S. Tromholdt recorded, with the assistance of two observers, 600 shooting stars in the first quarter of an hour after 9 o'clock, or about forty per minute, as observed at Munster. Allowing at the latter place thirty minutes, and in Jutland forty minutes, as their longitudes in time, east from Greenwich, the great abundance of the meteors here noted nearly coincides with the second principal maximum of the shower seen by Mr. Lowe and by Prof. Grant, at Glasgow, to have occurred at about, or shortly after, 8 o'clock, From the same time until 1th. 30m. P.M. (10h. 50m. Greenwich time), Mr. Tromholdt counted 1,660 meteors in two hours and a half, indicating a greatly decreased intensity of the shower; and, although clouds then prevented further observations, a perfectly clear sky enabled him to resume them at half-past 4 o'clock A.M. (3h. 5om. Greenwich time) on the morning, of the 28th, when he found the display to have entirely ceased, only four shooting stars making their appearance during the hour between half-past 4 and half-past 5 o'clock, or about 4 o'clock, Greenwich time.
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HERSCHEL, A. The Recent Star Shower . Nature 7, 185–188 (1873). https://doi.org/10.1038/007185a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/007185a0