The evening times., 1899-11-13

Ine much -talked-Of shower OF meteOrS
is expected to begin about 9 o'clock to-
night, and to continue until Wednesday or
Thursday. At the Naval Observatory and
smithsonian Institution this afternoon 1t
was said that the atmosphere will be in
fine condition for persons to witness the
! display-the weather being clear and cold.
The officials in charge said that while it
will be easy to see the shooting stars with
the eye alone it will be well for all who
are interested in such matters to provide
themselves with telescopes and glasses
and repair to the roofs Of their houses
about 9:2O o'clock. The shower Is ex-
pected to continue until daylight. the best
of the display occurring about midnight.
Arrangements have been made at the
Naval Observatory and at all other SINH
lar scientific headquarters to make as COM
plete a study of the phenomena as possi-
BILE, with the improved instruments for
observation and photographing.
Scientists agree that meteor Is simply
bit of solid matter, stone or metal,
which, dashing from the outer space into
the earth's atmosphere with terrific speed
is quickly heated to the melting point by
the friction of the air, affording to people
of the earth fifty or a hundred miles be-
low. the beautiful spectacle OF shooting
star"
The space traversed by the earth in its
annual journey round the sun is so abund-
antly supplied with these tiny celestial
bodies, which probably rarely exceed
hens egg in size, and more often are not
as large as peas, that 1t has been estimated
that the average daily fall Of meteors over
the whole earth is not less than hfteen
millions.
In some cases these tiny bodies are ag-
gregated into shoals or streams which
circle in great elliptical orbits around the
sun, and some Of which cross the earth's
orbit.
1t is one Of these meteor streams, scient-
lists say, that gives the earth its display
of November meteors. the "Leonids, as
they are called by astronomers, since regu-
| larly, about the middle Of this month the
earth crosses the orbit, or path, OF the
| meteors-
Usually the earth encounters only the
stragglers which have become separated in
the course of time from the main army,
and are scattered with greater or less pro-
| fusion along the entire line Of march. AT
| intervals OF thirty-three years, this being
| the time required by the meteors to per-
| form one revolution in their orbit. the
earth plunges directly through the thick
| Of the cluster. and then occur those start
| ers," when millions Of these hopeless
bodies are gathered up by the earth in the
course of few hours.
The thirty y-three-year period has again
elapsed and tonight 1t is expected that
there will be another shower Of these Leo
nids. When the swarm of particles passes
the earth such is its length that. though it
travels at the rate of twenty-sevan miles
second, the great procession takes two
years TO pass the earth, and before II has
ended its vanguard will have reached the
orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. AS before
stated it takes this enormous dust cloud
nearly n third of a century to pass entirely
around its orbit.
The head of the advancing column reach
ed the earth's orbit last spring. The col
umn, therefore, now lies directly in the
earth's way. The encounter between the
earth and the metsors is nearly 'end on"
the earth plunging obliquely through the
swarm in direction nearly opposite to that
in which the meteors move. As conse-
quence the meteors enter the earth's atmo5-
phere with a sped Of nearly forty miles a
second. The time required for the earth to
pass through the thick of the stream, and
therefore. the duration of the shower is
about five hours. or course, the shower,
when it comes, can only be witnessed by
those observers who happend to be on the
advancing side Of the earth during these
five hours People in the United States
may not be the lucky ones, but II the cal
culations OF some astronomers are correct
the United States affords the very best
vantage point that could be selected.
These November meteors are long
established institution. The earliest men
tion of them is made by Theophanes, who
wrote that in the year 472 A. Din the
month of October. however. not November
the sky at Constantinople seemed to be
one fire with falling stars. There is also
a record that on the night of October 10.
902 A. D.. as the Moorish king, Ibrahim
ben Ahmed. lay dying. the stars fell from
heaven like rain, and in Arab chronic es
this year is referred to as the Year of the
Stars
II is supposed that since that time TWEEN
ty-nine of these showers have occurred.
twelve of which have been recorded. The
most recent of these grand and long mys-
terious and terrifying phenomena are that
witnessed by Humboldt and Bonplond in
South America. on the morning Of No.
vember 13. 1893; the often-described show
er Of 1898, which was witnessed through
out the United States, on the morning Of
November 13 and that of November IA,
1866. which was witnessed throughout Eu-
rope. and which was followed in 1867 by
a scarcely less brilliant display witnessed