Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1899-11-12
THE LE0NID METEORS.
Where and When to Look to See
the Shower.
Constellation OF Leo ma PrIncipn,
Stars Composing u-Rau,nnt or
tho shooting Nsnrs aud the Be>,
Time to view the display,

Star-lovcrs in this city may be noted
nightly now lifting their gaze toward
the heavens ana if a shooting star"
some vagrant aerolte that owns no
rule of the majority" chances; TO re-
ward their manifest interest, they are
considerably pleased. Great interest is
shown in the coming meteor shower"
of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday
nights, and should those evenings prove
clear there les likely 10 be a large num-
Der of improvised telescopes pointed Mt
the heavens.
For the benefit of those not as con,
versant with the astronomical man of
the skies as others, Ii may not be mall
apropos To give some few pointers ~,
TO the direction in which To look and
now 10 lind the center OF the stellar
dust disturbance.
10 FIND THE RADIANT.
Nearly everyone knows how to find
the North star from the two extreme
stars OF the bowl of the big dlpper
tursa ma1or. and. this once found, tho
rest is easy: as. taking the North star
cine pole star-Arciurus) as 4 base
from which to work, the right hand
outstretched AS one faces the North
star will, If raised to n point about 80
ueSrees above the horizon, point direct
~ at Leo's feet. and an imaginary line
drawn. from the North star through
the pointers of the big dippcr (ursa
major) will always cut that constella-
ton Ueo) almost in half. and at
point 70 degrees TO Northward and %
Eastward is the central point, or ra-
diant, from which the "Leonds," as
these metcors are termed. appear to
shoot to North, South, East and West
n 1
named from its fancied resemblance in
outline TO the king of beasts is we'll
worth study. To tho naked eye 1t pre-
sents five more or less brilliant stars In
the crude form of Il soup-tureen, the
mouth toward the South, when the con-
etellation is directly overhead, with n
number of groups of small stars inter-
spersed. one group, that farthest East,
forming very fair sickle, another, to
Southwark, n triangle.
THE LIONS BRIGHT POINTS.
The principal stars are Regulus.
brightest OF the constellation. the
Southern Ras- l.l-Asad to the North
east; Algicba, second in brightness and
to the Northwest; CoNa, n tritie small
| err and directly West of this IN line from
the North star through the pointers will
very nearly strike this starr and BOSNIA,
| third in brightness and directly South
west of the latter. Or these BOSNIA Is
in the nose of the lion, as traced In
| stellar constellation maps: CoXa at the
shoulder Algieba at the hip, Regullis at
the rump, and Ras-El-Asad in the
sickle or tail. About two degrees West
of this latter star is the radiant of the
| "Leonids." and toward this point all
| eyes will naturally turn. The metcors
| will be noticed to be n bluesh green, ms
seen through powerful field glasses; to
| the ordinary observer they will simply
be flashing streams OF light. though
should any very large ones appear their
| color may be determined with the naked
| eye. The color is the result of the ma
! ture Of the mineral formation fused in
| the atmosphere
THE BEST TIME.
AS, however, BOSNIA, the earliest to
make appearance OF the stars of this
| constellation, does not make its appear
| ance above the horizon until nearly
midnight, and Ras- El-Asad until about
| 3 a. M. and the constellation is not at
the Zenith until nearly dawn, the
| finest display will be in the morning,
between and o'clock. and it will be
| fully as we'll to go to bed early and
arise at the earlier hour to note the
] display.