Evening star., 1896-11-13
WATCH THE NORTHEAST
Display of Shooting Stars Expected to Appea,
Tonight.
To BE Watched by Scientists-An Ex.
PLANTATION of the Phenomenon by
French Astronomers.

That the skies have cleared and there Is
every sign Of fine weather tonight should
be cause for congratulation to every one
who takes any interest In the phenomena
Of the heavens, for, unless the predictions
of the astronomers are at fault, and they
are usually reliable, there will be a fine me
teoric display between sunset and sunrise
tomorrow morning.
Shooting stars, to use the vernacular, are
by no means uncommon, and may be seen
almost any clear night, but, as every OBJ
server knows. they are most frequent In
August and November. It was not until
about century ago that they were first
studied with any degree Of care. There
was a wonderfully fine display in 1799, and
again during the night of November 1918.
1888. and by careful computation it has
been proved that the maximum swarm may
be looked for three times in the century.
The display tonight Is expected, by some
astronomers. to be finer than anything seen
for three decades. but all agree that it will
be hEer still next year, increasing in bril-
nancy until 1899. so that, in sense, the
present century will go out in a blaze of
glory.
To Study the Phenomenon.
Astronomers in this country, at the Naval
Observatory and elsewhere. have made
iSpdidlioHS 10 StuQy the pueuOHleHOH, IOF,
apart from the mere beauty of the spec
tacle, 1t throws an interesting light on va
rious matters, among them the relation be-
tween comets and shooting stars and the
question of the height of the earth's at
mosphere. Shooting stars have no light of
tnelr own. but are consumed by their in
conceivably rapid flight through our at
mosphere. The combustion is so complete
that 1t Is very rare for solid body to
reach the earths surface. BY studying the
night or the same meteor from more than
one point of view, 1t becomes possible to
estimate the height of our atmosphere. BY
this means. according to Prof. Simon New
comb. 1t has been shown that the atmos-
phere extends to a much greater distance
than had been previously supposed.
Prof. Henry NJ. Paul of the Naval OBJ
servatory said to Star reporter this morn
ing that the astronomers at the obserya-
tory were not bothering themselves very
much about tonights shower
our only instructions have been" he
SAID. to keep our eyes off toward the
northeast, and. if possible. to make a count
OF all the meteors We see. Important re-
suits from study of meteoric showers, as,
Ior instance, the determination of the ra-
@nt, can only be secured by means of
photographs, for which We are not well pre-
pared: The astronomers at Yale are bet
ter off in that respect and they NAV secure
some valuable results But, personally.
am not looking for very much Of a dis
play tonight. The main guard Is not ex-
pected until 1899 or 1900, and all we viii
see tonight will be a few of the advance
guard. The radiant point will not rise
above the horizon to the northeast until
after midnight, and the best time to see
the meteors will be from then until day
light
An Explanation.
NJ. Flanmarion. the French astronomer
writing In the Paris Herald. has the fol-
lowing to say as to the explanation of me-
teoric showers:
"A swarm of milliards of meteoric CORPUS
c1es circulates round the sun along a very
elongated orbit, which extends as far as
Uranus. and takes about thirty-three wears
to travel. This immense celestial highway
is strongly inclined upon the track which
the earth follows in its yearly travel round
the sun. but cuts our terrestrial orbit at
the spot where our planet passes on No
yember II.
I'VE only expect to encounter this swarm
every thirty-three years. But 1t is dissent
mated along its orbit over a vast extent of
hundreds of millions Of kilometers so that
the passage of these migratory birds of the
heavens lasts many years, almost during
the same period for every year more shoot
ing stars are observed coming from this
point Of emanatiOn than from the other re-
gicns of space. There appear to be also
other centers of condensation.
The main body of this celestial army
will reach us in 1899. Nevertheless as
tronOners are preparing to study with the
passes through the sky so as to COM
plete their knowledge of one of the newest
and most curious chapters of contempo-
rary astronomy-the relations existing be-
tween comets and shooting stars.
I'VE may hken these swarms Of meteors
to gigantic assemblage of cosmic dust.
This mass. in spite of it's immensity is
invisible. 1t has no light Of itsrown and is
not dense enough to reflect solar light.
We only discern the shooting stars on their
introduction into our atmosphere.
Did our atmosphere not exist We should
not be aware Of their existence. These
specks Of dust set on fire while crossing
the heights of our atmosphere (about q
hundred kilometers above our heads on an
average). because they come to us with
enormous speed (5,6O7 600 meters per Sec
ond). and their motion, slackened by the
resistance OF the air. even though very
rarehed, transforms them into luminous
warmth.
consumed during its passage; sometimes it
continues its invisible course after leaving
our atmosphere.
THE swarm which gives birth to the
shooting stars of November IA circulates
through space along very elongated
elliptical orbit, in an opposite direction to
the motion of the earth through space and
meets our planet, in front, during the
morning of November IA. the earth at the
moment being in motion toward the con-
stellatiOn Leo.
1T is much wider In extent than our
planet. which passes through 1t as a bullet
passes through cloud of gnats coming
quickly along. The corpuscles meet US
face to face. let us say, and their trajecto-
ries in our atmosphere are parallel.
Their apparent divergence from a point
Of emanation is only the effect of perspec-
tive.
"The speed Of the earth on November IA,
in it's passage round the sun. is 10000 me-
ters per second. That Of the swarm of
meteoric corpuscles is 1900 meters. The
speed of their meeting. therefore, is 1900
meters.
knights of St. John.
The installation Of the new commandery-
St. Stephens. No. 299-took place in ST.
Cfannop's Church 1asf NIGHT o5th cfroet