Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-11-13
LOOK OUT FOR MEIEORS.
Tonight and Saturday Night There
Will Be a Great Display.
We Should See the Finest Sight Since the
Display Of 1866.

| S0' WV soAeS an interest IN the WOrders
OF the heavens to keep q sharp lookout
Tor meteors on Friday and Saturday
! nights OF this week. The number oil
meteors seen may not be very great. and
on the other hand. II may be surprisingly
large. but at any rate If the sky is clear
the attentive watcher will be sure to see
some. And those that he does see will he
extremely interesting because they are
the advance fakes of a fiery storm which
will burst over the earth with spectacular
effect IN November. 1899 and vet again.
with duplicated splendor in 1900. These
meteors will thus furnish a celestial spec
tacle TO celebrate the closing DAYS of the
18th century.
There may he few other meteors dv-
ing I'm the heavens on Friday and Satur-
day nights not belonging to the great
procession of those mysterious bodies
that Is advancing to meet the earth. But
1t will not be difficult for any one ia dis
tinguish the true November meteors from
all others by noting the direction in which
they move. The apparent center from
which they radiate-that Is to saw. the
point in outer space wherefrom they como
lis situated in the so-called Sickle in
the constellation Leo. This constellation
rises now at about midnight so that the
meteors will be best seen in the small
hours of the morning. Earlier IN the
night they should be looked for risirp
like Distant rockets from behind I'M.
northeastern horizon Ana throughou.
the early morning hours they will be $een
in the easter half of the sky. Any meteor
that may be noticed moving out of the
western or southern heavens toward the
east or northeast may be set down as n
stranger, a lone wanderer. nSt c5nnecto
with the expected display
Another method of recognizing a trUn
November meteor is by means Of lis
color As 1t runs burning along tia. slsv
II generally displays q tint of blue or
green in its light and frequently leaves
luminous train, which continues Wis be
after the meteor itself has disappeared.
A meteoric shower in the popular
sense OF the term. is not 10 be expected
on this occasion. The mcteors seen will
probably appear singly. and some pa
thence may be required on the par, OF the
watcher. Yet his patience will be re-
war6ed for surely there are few more in
terestins sights for an Intelligent person
than the destruction in cur atmosphere
OF little body whose previous career
may have been as long as that Of the
great earth itself.
In fact. the November mettoIs have
been in the solar system only POP years
They wandered into our neighborhood OF
space in the year l26 T. C.. and the planet
Uranus ran them in according 10 the
expression of the police 50 changing
bai l,,-- H.. .f !,
that from that time forth they have con-
tinned to revolve around the sun. once
in every 33i4 years they cross tine orbit of
the earth just at the time about the 18th
of November when the earth itself ar
rives at the crossing place. Then they
burst into momentary flame as they rush
through the air. ana. on the average. are
destroyed before they have descended
nearer than 20 or 30 miles from the sur
face of the ground. Years afterwarI w
may take them in imperceptble particles
into our lungs. as their dust and ashes
slowly sink through the air. But the total
quantity of dust derived by the earth
from this source is so small as 10 defy
exact measurement
The most famous display of the Novem-
Der meteors was in 1893 when 50 great q
terror spread over the plantations of the
Southern states, then crowded with negro
slaves that the awful scene is recalled
with shudder by the few who have sur
vived TO our time. AS thick a. snowflake
the blazing me,ecrs drove through Tie
sky Illuminating the face of the earth
with "A far-extenlng glare. as If the world
had been on fire: and the ignorant actu
ally believed that it was on fire, and that
the Judgment day had come like a thief
in the night
In 1866 and 1861 there were other dis
plays hardly less wonderful. 1t was after
these later spectacles that astronomers
made the discovery that there is a comet
in the same orbit with the me
teors. This comet was seen in 1866. ana
will probably be seen again in 1893. In
deed, the meteors and the comet are no
doubt parts of one original aSsemblaSe
of small bodies which was wandering
among the stars for millions of years be
fore it approached our star. the sun and. |
falling under the influence of the planet
Uranus. was fixed forever in the solar
system.