The Indianapolis journal., 1898-10-24
TWO METEOR DISPLAYS
Sky TO BE ABLAZEc WITH FIERY
WANDERERS NEXT MONTH.
One Show Two Billion Miles in Length
to Begin Nov. 13 and Another Due
on the Night of the goth.
Garrett P. serviss, in St. Louis Republic.

Garrett p. Serviss, in ST. Louis Republic.
Two great meteor shows in a single month.
and only two weeks apart constitute rare
event in astronomical annals Such ar
event is due to occur in November One
of the expected showers will result from the
first on-rush of the advancing columns Of
the great Leonid meteors which envelop
the earth in fiery spectacles once in every
thirty-three and quarter years. The main
mass of these meteors is due in November.
1899, but. since their array extends over a..
length of at least 1900 100000 miles, they re-
quire not less than three years to pass the
place where their orbit intersects that Of
the earth. Accordingly, astronomers are
confident that their leading files will be
streaming in hundreds of thousands across
the point of intersection when our globe
arrives there, about Nov. 13. this year. The
tocsin of science has been sounded star
maps and directions to observers have been
scattered broadcast, the latest improve
ments in photography have been enlisted
in the service. and the astronomical world
is on the qui vive for the expected eHcoun-
ter.
Inc other great shower occurs on the
night OF Nov. %, and will be caused by
the meeting of the earth with the meteors
known as the Ancromedes, or Bieids which
are closely related to the famous missing
comet of Biela. if they are not, in fact,
scattered debris of that comet itself. These
in iSS5 when asb buse seen haI N great shower
dropped out OF the sky while it was filled
WITH their dazzling grains, and buried itself
IN the earth near Mazapil, in Mexico. That
meteor, or piece of smashed comet is row
in a mineralogical museum in Europe
only the transparent air protects us
against death from meteors. A meteor's
velocity at the instant it strikes the atmos-
phere is from $1,000 to 250.OO0 feet per sec
ond. Occasionally the shield of the atmos-
phere proves insufficient, and the earth's
armor is pentrated by a meteor of more
than ordinary. size and density. This is what
happened at Mazapil during the shower of
the Andromedes in 1885, and 1t may happen
again next month.
The Mazapl meteor composed mostly of
iron buried itself two or three feet in the
hard soil, and dug out, yet glowing
with heat, by persons who had seen 1t fall
If a similar meteor should fall in New York
city, Notwithstanding the loss of velocity it
would suffer in passing through hundred
miles or so of air. it would penetrate the
stoutest roof or wall, and If large as
some others that have been known to reach
the. earth, it would demolish twenty-story
building more effectively than whole
broadslde of thirteen-inch shells could do it.
The adventures of the two great troops
OF meteors which are now rushing rapidly
toward the earth have been varied and
startling, and the future may have still
more remarkable things in store for them
and for us The Leonids Cthus called be-
cause they appear to radiate from the con-
stellation Leo) hold, like the Andromedes,
close relations with comet which is trav-
cling in the same track. Every time they
meet the earth they suffer violent pertur-
bations. Besides the millions which are con-
sumed with fire in the air, other millions
and millions are whirled into new paths and
drawn out into streams like eddying leaves
in a storm.
In 1893 a particularly dense mass encoun-
tered the globe and the result was a spec
tacle that carried terror broadcast over the
world, the greatest excitement being pro-
States where the negro slaves believed
that the end of the world was upon them,
while their white masters could not give
them the assurance that their fears were
not well founded. All accounts agree that
this universal .amazement on the 18th Of
November of 1888 was such as the world
has very rarely experienced.
In 1866. when the earth next encountered
the Leonid meteors. the display was mag
niticent, but not so overwhelming as In
1888 Brilliant showers seen in the
years Immediately preceding and following
's spsy S this Wheher
shall now encounter a compact column of
meteors or a. comparatively scattered mass
no one can foretell, but that many will be
seen may be regarded as a certainty. Even
the precise time when the most brilliant
spectacle will be presented is not known
The Harvard College Observatory advises
watchers to begin their vigil about IL
O'Clock on the evening of Nov ii and keep
it up until the stars fade in the morning
twilight on Nov. Is
One circumstance will be especially IA
vorable for a brilliant display: The moon.
being new, will not interfere with its light
The moon. too, will be involved in the
shower. Being without any appreciable at
mosphere, its surface will have no protec-
ton against the hail of meteors, and the
spectacle of their striking, if we could wit
ness it lear by. probably would astonish us
beyond measure
AS to the peril from meteors it should be
said that the most dangerous kind appar-
emily do not belong to any wel-known
swarm, but travel Independently through
space and strike, unannounced into the at
mosphere. Such meteors frequently reach
the ground, and people have on rare occa-
sions been killed by them. But among the
hundreds of thousands of meteors that
filled the sky thick as snowfakes in 1885,
1885, 1872 and 1885, only one Che Mazapi
iron) was seen to strike the earth and
there is doubt whether that one belonged to
the swarm came along independently of
it.