The record-union., 1899-11-11


gagged in my usual duty. at that time,
of observing nebulae with Lord Roses
great rejecting telescope Cat Parsons
town, Ireland3. 1 was. of course, aware
that a shower of meteors had been pre-
dicted, but nothing that I had heard
prepaRed me for the splendid spectacle
so seon to be unfolded. 1t was about
10 O'Clock at night when an excIama-
ton from an attendant, by my side,
made me look UP from the telescope,
just in time to see fine meteor lash
across the sky. 1t was presently fol-
lowed by another, and then again by
others in twos and threes, which shower
YVES likely to be verified. At this time
the Earl of Rose Chen Lord Oxman-
town. joined me at the telescope, and
after a brief interval, we decided to
cease our observations of the nebulae
and ascend to the top of the wall of the
great telescope, from whence clear
view of the whole hemisphere of the
heavens could be obtained. There for
the next two or three hours we wit
messed a spectacle which can never fade
from my memory The shooting stars
gradually increased in numbers until
sometimes several We're seen at once,
the left, but they all diverged from the
east. AS the night wore on the constel-
lation of Leo assembled above the hori-
zon, and then the remarkable character
of the shower was disclosed All the
tracks of the meteors radiated from
Leo. Occasionally luminous trains
would linger on for many minutes after
the meteor had flashed across, but the
TO-, &1,;e
shower were evanescent. 1t would be
impossible to say how many thousands
of meteors were seen, each one of which
was bright enough to have elected a
note of admiration on any ordinary
night"
This shower was best seen in Europe
in 1866, but in 1867 it was repeated and
the observers in the United States were
treated to magnificent spectacle. The
researches of Professor Newton of New
Haven, and of Professor Adams of
Cambridge, England, and others, have
demonstrated that there is moving
about the sun, as a. center Of attrac-
ton, a great bunch or group of meteors.
This group takes thirty-three and one
quarter years to make a complete cir
cult Its orbit plane is inclined to the
earth's orbit, and so related to it that
the meteor group crosses the earth's
orbit at that place where the earth
comes about November 13th-15th. The
enormous stream has a small breadth
in comparison with it's length. Dr.
Storey has calculated that, if we rep
resent the orbit of the meteors by an
eclipse whose length is seven feet then
the meteor stream will be represented
by a thread of the finest sewing silk,
about a foot and a half or two feet
long, creeping along the orbit
In the heavens this ellipse has an axis
over 100000 miles in length. At
aphelion the meteor group goes out be-
yond the orbit of the planet Uranus.
The real breadth of the stream cannot
be less than 100000 miles, and is prob
ably 100000 miles. In 1866 the earth
took five hours to go through, NOV
ing at the rate of about eighteen miles
a second In 1867, when the earth re-
turned to the cross roads, the meteor
stream was still going by, and America,
especially, had splendid view. Even
in 1868 the stream had not gone by
completely. There are meteors scattered
all along the orbit path of the group,
but there appears to be only one group
or bunch. We therefore see meteors
every year about November 13th-15th,
but the grand shower comes only when
we strike into the punched stream.
The calculations of the great French
astronomer LIE Verrier appear to indl-
cate that, in 126 A. D., the Leonids Gas
the swarm is called, because the mete-
ors seem to radiate from Leo were
moving in an orderly manner around
a great orbit which would take them
past the earth's orbit out almost to
Jupiter in their nearest approach to
the sun, and then they would recede
never to be seen again in the solar sys-
tenn. But in that year (126 A. d. the
planet Uranus was near the swarm as
they passed his orbit, and he by the
power of his perturbing attraction
pulled them back and caused them to
pursue a smaller orbit, the present
path. Uranus captured for the solar
system this interesting group of mete-
ors The group is subject now, in its
motion around the sun, to disturbing
effects of pulls from the other planets.
Jupiter, Saturn, and the earth. These
pulls make the accurate calculations
difficult, and produce a little uncertain
ty as to the times of the showers. a
few weeks after the 1866 shower OF
Leonids the astronomer Schiaparelli of
Milan published a paper on the August
meteors Cor Perseids, because their radi-
ant spot is in Perseus). He showed the
wonderful fact that a. bright comet was
moving in the same path as the August
meteors A little later Professor OPP
polzer of Germany published his orbit
of Tempers comet of 1856. Then it
was seen that a remarkable coincidence
ve1nber meteors and Temples 1866
comet-the orbits were practically
identical" Several years later the
meteoric shower radiating from
Andromeda was shown to be following
in the path of Biela's comet. Later
| yet the April meteors We're found to
be associated with a comet. Four such
remarkable cases seem to prove a
physical connection between comets and
meteors.
| Many astronomers hold that these
meteor swarms are simply the result
of comets going to pieces under the
action of the sun, during their success
i've returns to perihelion. The earth's
atmosphere, Ball remarks, acts, in
burning up the cometary pieces, like a
screen in protecting US from lombard
ment. If the air were less dense and
thinner many more meteors might get
| through to the earth. No meteorites
have come to us from any Of the great
showers