Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-11-12
SHOWER OF STARS.
The Annual Meteoric Display Will Be
Between Nov. 1914.

Between Nov. 1914.
On the night between Nov. Is and IA
next we may expect to see the sky fur
rowed with numerous shooting stars,
coming from space, and appearing to
emanate from the constellation Leo, not
far from the star Zeta. This shower of
stars will be repeated more abundantly
still in 1898, and will attain its maximum
in 1899. Here is the explanation of the
phenomena:
A swarm of miliards of meteoric cor
puscles circulates around the sun along
a very elongated orbit, which extends
as far as Uranus and takes about thirty
three years to travel. This immense ce-
Iestial highway is strongly inclined upon
the track which the earth follows in its
yearly travel around the sun, but cuts our
terrestrial orbit at the. spot where our
planet passes on Nov. Ia.
We only expect to encounter this swarm
every thirty-three years. But it is dis
seminated along its orbit over vast ex-
tent of hundreds of millions of kilome-
ters, so that the passage of these migra-
tory birds of the heavens lasts many
years, almost during the same period, for
every year more shooting stars are OBJ
served coming from this point of emana-
| ton that from the other regions of space.
| There appear to be also other centers or
condensation.
The main body of the celestial army
will reach us in 1899. Nevertheless as
| tronomers are preparing to study with
| the greatest attention on Nov. IA next
what passes through the sky, so as to
complete their knowledge Of one OF the
| newest and most curious chapters of CO.
| temporary astronomy-the relations ex-
| listing between comets and shooting stars.
| The first scientific observation of the
| phenomena was made by Humboldt and
1 Ilaa MIA md ut n MOI
| the night between Nov IL and II, 1893.
| A veritable shower of shooting stars be-
| gan to appear before midnight and ac-
| quired increased intensity until o'clock
| in the morning, and then diminished by
| degrees till daylight. Bonpland asserted
| that there was not space in the sky equal
| to three diameters of the moon that was
| not seen at every instant filed with
| shooting stars.
The inhabitants of Cumana were some
what alarmed and recalled to mind the
| fact that the great earthquakes of 1766
| were proceeded by similar phenomenon.
| This shower of shooting stars in 1913
| was observed throughout America, in
| Brazil, in Labrador and Guiana, Germany
| and even Greenland
| During the night, between Nov. IL and
10, 1888, the same phenomenon was OBJ
served especially in the United States, by
Prof. Olmsted of New Haven, who COM
pared this extraordinary shower of me-
| teors to a display of fireworks The me-
| teors left in their tracks phosphorescent
trains, which sometimes were S1nuouS,
| like serpents. Many among them ap-
peared as brilliant as Jupiter and Venus.
| Shortly before 6 o'clock in the morning
| the point OF radiation or divergence was
| to the west of the constellation Leo, not
| far from Regulus.
| During the next hour the point in ques-
| ton remained stationary in the same part
| of Leo, although during the hour the con-
| stellatlon had Travelled about Is degrees
| westward
These meteors were seen along the east
coast of America from the Gulf of Next
| co to Halifax from o'clock at night till
sunrise, and in some places even at broad
| daylight at o'clock in the morning.
The stars were so numerous that they
| appeared in every part of the heavens at
| once. SO that 1t was hopeless to do more
| than arrive at rude approximation or
| their number by counting
| Olmsted compared them, at the mo-
| ment of their maximum, to about half the
| number of flakes seen in the air during
| an ordinary fall of snow. When the phe-
| nomenon had considerably diminished he
| counted $50 stars in fifteen minutes, al
| though he limited his observations to a
| zone which was less than one-tenth of the
| visible horizon.
The number, according to him. was on
| Nv two-thirds of the total, which should
| have been S66, and for the visible hemis-
| phere $500. This estimate means 3464o
shooting stars per hour. AS the phenom-
| enon LASTED seven hours, the number
| which appeared above the horizon ex-
| ceeded 100000.
| In the previous year, between Nov. II
| and 10, an immense number were seen
| at Limoges, and some workmen went out
| of their minds with fright and ran away.
! On the road between Bayeux and Caen
the young lie Verrier, than pupil at the
| Polytechnic School, declared that shoot
| ing stars followed each other without
cessation, and in such numbers that 1t
| would have taken hours to count those
| which appeared simultaneously, suppos-
| ing they had been fixed in the sky"
During the succeeding years more
shooting stars were noticed at this time
/ of year than on ordinary nights, but in
| relatively considerably less numbers.
The succession of years 1865 and 1888 led
| the astronomer OILERS to conjecture that
| there might be periodical recurrence or
| meteors every thirty-three years. and In
1897 he announced that there would prob
! ably be a similar display in 1867.