The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-11-16

scured from View in These Parts
by the Dense Clouds Which Hung
Continuously Over Us-some In
teresting Information.
Another night OF "rubbering" and
still no meteoric shower. There may
have been a shower and the astrono-
mers who predicted it for last night
can safely assert there was, for 1t
might have rained good-sized planets
instead of meteorids and no one would
have been the wiser of 1t under any
empyrean dome that covered us, 50
dense were the clouds that continually
lowered over these parts.
There are several elements of uncer-
tainty about the time of the coming Of
the shower. 1t may come little earlier
or later than Nov. 14-15, the astrono-
mers have said, and some unknown eff
fect of the planetary pulls may so dis
turb the motion of the swarm that 1t
may decline to put in an appearance
at all this year. If so, the astronomer
is quite certain that he will see the
century-November 1900.
The meteors of this tri-century
shower appear to radiate from the con-
stellation of Leo, "the Lion" which
first appears Just little east of north.
From this, the point of radiance, the
members OF this shower take their
name, the "Leonids." Previous to the
last appearance, the shower was pre-
dicted for 1866. On November IA of
that year, brilliant display was seen
in Europe and on the same morning in
the following year America witnessed
a display about equally brilliant.
REASON FOR 1T.
Star gazers say that this is due to
the fact that the procession of meteor
oids, whose destruction produces the
rain of light, takes so long a time to
pass a given point that the earth can
run through them and wheeling along
on its 600J00,0O0 mile journey strike
the procession again on the next cir
cult. Some are far ahead of the pro-
cession and were seen last year. The
parade numbers thousands of millions
of meteoroids and so strung out are
they that while the earth runs across
them distance of about 100, 900 miles
in few hours, twelve months or more
does not see an end of them.
A comet leads the procession, one
seen only in telescopes and preceding
the procession at some length. 1t was
only at the last appearance of Leonids
that this advance guard was put down
as member of the procession, two as
tronomers learning that the orbit of
the meteoroids and that of Temples
comet of 1857 coincide more or less in
all particulars.
GRAINS OF COSMICAL DUST.
The meteoroids, whose brilliant de-
struction are the cause of the display
are particles said by scientists to bt
grains of cosmical dust, the size OF
pin heads, grains of shot or small bull.
! let's. These are travelling about TWEEN
| ty-six miles a second in opposition
| to the earth's movement of eighteen
miles and striking the earth's atmos.
| phere at a relative speed of forty-foul
miles q second, the friction heats the
| particle to combustion point and Il
disappears into flame.
No dust from the showers has, so fal
as is known, reached the earth, al
though aerolites have at other time!
often fallen. Some scientists hold tina
| the particles came originally from {
broken up asteroid, others, from tht
earth, thrown out from 1t in violen
volcanic action. At any rate they
were whirling through the heavens, 81
the astronomers say, bound for tn,
infinite space, when they flew too nea,
the planet Uranus, who seized upol
them and drew them from the
straight course into the ellipse whicl
for seventeen hundred years they hav
followed.
The progress of the years, we ar
told, will destroy the brilliant periods
shower of fire. Each of the myriad
Of meteoroids moves at it's own pac
through the heavens and while tn
faster gain ground, the slower fall be
hind until eventually the two ends o
the procession will meet and each yea
the earth will rum through the neve
ending procession and celebrate
stellar Fourth of July which will
gradually decline In display.
NEARLY RUN DOWN.
Some meteorides consist of nearl
pure iron, with nickel, others ar
stony, and still others are mainly ston,
with grains and globules Of iron. Com
paratively few meteors have bee
seen to fall. Their chemical and min
eralogical character is such that the
can be identified as meteors, it is sup
posed, without anyone seeing then
fall. The number of shooting star
visible to the naked eye is far create
than one would imagine who Unl
glances at the sky now and then.
A single observer can see, on tn
average about five an hour. But sucl
a group of watchers can observe, ordi
narily, only those stars which shoot
within 200 or 300 miles of their observ
ing station. If, therefore, the Who'll
earth were covered with observer
enough to see all the heavens, it ma
Deen calculated by the late Prof. New
ton of Yale university that the numbe
visible daily would be between $4,000,
900 and 20,000,000. When to this mum
Der we add those which are too fain
to be seen by the naked eye, we reacl
a total which may run up to 100000 OOt
We are, therefore. forced to the con
cluslon that inter planetary spaces ar
quite rich in such bodies. Investiga
tions show that these shooting star
are of q gregarious temperament. Mil