Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1879-11-29

it happens that at times some Of them
are c:illed by her attraction, and so they
cease their wanderings, and fall to rest
on the bosom of their mother. On the
night of Nov. %. the lecturer said, We
may expect to see a brilliant display of
meteors radiating from n point
near-f the star Gamma, in the right
foot of the constellation Andromeda,
which is now nearly overhead ut
about 10 o'clock at night. 1t has been
ascertained that meteors follow in fiocks
in the track of comets. In 1916 Biela's
comet was observed to split in two.
The two parts each had head and a
tail, and they rushed on side by side.
now one appearing the brighter and
now the other, until they disappeared.
At their return, in 1852, they were vet
keeping up their swift race, but they had
very much changed in form. In 1859
their pcrihelion passage was too near
the sun TO permit them to be observed.
In 1865. when they should have been
seen again, they could not be found.
They were also missed in 1871. But it
had occurred TO Alexander Herschel
and TO Prof. Proctor that at the time
the earth crossed the path of those
comets it would be well to look out for
meteors. Meteors were looked for, and
a very brilliant display was seen on Nov.
%. A German astronomer was SO sure
that this display was caused by the earth
meeting the fragments of the missing
comets that he telegraphed TO an OBJ
CT hn ha,-f
hemisphere, '.Biela touched the
earth Nov. q. Look out for it in the
opposite quarter The astronomer
looked in the direction indicated, and
saw patch of light, like a cloudlet of
little stars, moving rapidly across the
heavens. 1t sped on until il disappeared.
IL had come rushing out of the north
and disappeared in the south. Prof.
Proctor thinks that the great mass of
the dissipated comet did not meet the
earth, but it passed so close that the out
lying parts of the cluster touched the
earth. On next Thanksgiving night
this swarm of flying metcors will again
come flying out of the northern heavens,
and Prof. Proctor predicts that there
will be a brilliant display in the sky 1t
may not happen, he said, because per-
haps the meteoric cluster may have been
dissipated, but he felt pretty certain that
there will be Il display.
The lecturer advised astronomers to
keep lookout for about Il week previ-
OTIS TO the 9th inst. in that quarter of
the heavens from which the meteors APP
proaeh in order, if possible, to detect
the cluster rs it rushes end-on toward the
earth
Before entering upon the subject of
his lecture on the following evening,
Prof Proctor remarked that his aver
ment, in his previous lecture, that the
moon is beyond the domain of the earth,
and is more controlled by the sun than
by the earth, had apparently raised
doubts in the minds of some persons,
and he had received letters requesting
further light q. The subject. One in I
quirer asked VIZ, if it is true that the
moon is chiefly under the suns influence
instead of the earth's, it (the moon)
goes around the earth The answer is,
the lecturer said, that the moon does not
go around the earth. The earth and the
moon both circle about their common
center of gravity. The moons path
around the sun is very slightly waved,
owing TO the perturbing influence of the
earth's attraction, but this variance is so
comparatively slight that if the moons
orbit about the sun be represented by
circle three feet in diameter, the vari-
ance from a true circle, caused by the
earth, would be hardly preceptible.