The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1866-11-15
Msteoric Showers or Shooting Stars. /"

meICVIlC SuVWtIS VI SnOOClnS SCdTS.
1t seems to have been the general i'm
preston of scientific men that meteori,
shower was to come off on the morning o
November 18th, and as such light is only
witnessed once in an ordinary generation
we have concluded to give our readers
such information on the subject as we
chance to possess. The foundation fol-
the belief that this phenomenon might be
expected on the 18th, is the fact that
similar phenomena occurred on the 18th
of November 1900, and on the 18th oil
November, 1S33-at an interval of thirty
three years-which, if there be any fixed
rules governing their recurrence, will
bring it upon the 18th of November, 1866.
On the morning of the 18th of Novem-
ber, 1888, we learn from Olmsted's As
tronomy, from two o'clock until broad day
light, the sky being prefectly serene and
cloudless; the whole heavens were light
ed with magnificent display of celestial
fire works, At times the air was filled
with streaks of light, occasioned by frey
PARTICLES darting down so swiftly as to
leave the impression of their light upon
the eye (like match ignited and whirl-
ed before the face and difting to the
northwest like flakes of snow driven by
the wind; while, at short intervals, balls
of fire, varying in size from minute points
to bodies larger than Jupiter and Venus,
and in few instances as large as the full
moon, descended more slowly along the
arch of the sky, often leaving after them
long trains of light, which were in some
instances variegated with prismatic colors.
On tracing back the lines of direction
in which the meteors moved, is was found
that they all appeared to radiate from the
same point, which was situated near one
of the stars of the sickle, in the Constella-
tion "Leo;" and in every repetition of the
meteoric shower, the radiant point has
occupied nearly the same situation.
This shower pervaded nearly the whole
of North America, having appeared in al
most equal splendor from the British pos
sessions Of the North to the West India
Islands, and Mexico on the South, and
from sixty-one degrees of longitude east
of the American coast, quite to the Pa
cifc ocean on the Wesl. Throughout
this immense region the duration was
nearly the same. The meteors began to
attract attention by their unusual frequen-
cy, from nine to twelve o'clock in the
evening; were most striking in their ap-
pearance from two to four; arrived at
their maximum, in many places, about
four o'clock, and continued until render
ed invisible by the light of the day
Some authorities fix the date of the first
recorded meteoric shower on November
18th, 1899, instead of 1900, and conse-
quently fixed the time of its recurrence on
November 18th, 1S67-being an inter-
val of thirty -four, instead of thirty three
years. We leave time and the astrono-
mers to determine which calculation is the
most correct.
Astronomers seem to agree that these
periodical meteors have their origin be-
yond the atmosphere, descending to US
from some nebulous body with which the
earth falls in, and near or through the
borders of which it passes aud that this
nebulous body has an INDEPENDENT exis-
tence as member of the solar system,
with regular periods of revolution. 1t is
furtherestablished that these meteors are of
light combustible matter; that they move
with great velocity, amounting in some
instances to nineteen miles in second !;
that some of them are bodies of large
size, sometimes several thousand feet in
diameter that when they enter the at
mosphere, they rapidly and powerfully
condense the air before them, and then
elicit the heat that sets them on fire and
they are burned up at a considerable
height above the earth, sometimes not less
than thirty miles.
On the occasion alluded to, November
1888, many thought the end of the world
had come, while the more superstitions
were stricken dumb with fear