The Savannah morning news., 1901-11-10

shooting stars. though appearing to be
' very much at random, will, If carefully
placed on a chart of the sky, be found
to meet at a certain point-the social
ed radiant" This has a movement of
its own, the measurement of which is
an interesting subject of research. The
paths of the shooting star-a meteor"
as has bene said. being a dark body
in space; that is, a shooting star
only when it collides with the earth's
atmosphere and becomes luminous
will also be found to grow shorter and
shorter as one approaches the radiant,
due to the effect of perspective. A
railroad track, for example, will APP
| pear shorter or longer. in itself. as one
| looks at it in perspective or from one
! side The paths of the meteors are
parallel, and as we look at them, those
near the radiant will be 'headon,' ana
however long in reality will appear as
points only to us. We see the paths
more and more sideways moving away
from the radiant, and meteors very
much to the side of our axis of vision
will sweep through great arcs of the
sky.
The constellation Leonis rises shortly
before midnight on Nov. IA, but is not
we'll in view till / a. m. 1t can be
found readily by using the pointers
| in the Dipper in a reverse direc-
ton from the customary use in
finding the North Star. Leonis Will
be identified about as far off as
| the North Star is the other way,
and is a very good outline OF
sickle, with the bright star Regulus at
the outer end of the handle. A better
way is to use the two stars forming
the side of the Dipper nearest the ham
die for pointers. These point. again in
the direction opposite to the North
| Star. directly at the Sickle. The radi-
ant of the Leonds is within the curve
| of the blade of the Sickle, near the CEN
| ter. The whole of the constellation,
however, does not come into good view
| till about 2 a. m.
In observing meteors, the important
things looked for by astronomers are
the number and brightness. Color,
| length of path and other things are
useful; but with the number and
brightness something of Importance
can be done, and, what is of more gem
eral interest one need not be profess
sional astronomer to do ones part In
! that something.
| In a circular issued by the Harvard
| Observatory and designed to secure
world wide cooperation in the work of
| observing the expected Leonids, 1t has
| been recommended that the observer
| note how long it took for ten shooting
stars to appear. on the record made
|
| the observers pOstoffice address; the
astronomical date, which is obtained
by using the date of the previous even
| ing for the morning observations also,
! since the astronomical day begins at
noon; the time used, whether Green
wich, standard or local. the beginning
and ending of observations, which were
to be made, usually, with intervals OF
| rest between, when other special OBJ
servations might be made; and finally,
any Interruptions by clouds or from
other causes. If the shooting stars
! have long paths or marked characters,
a less number than ten might be chos-
| en-. If they are numerous, larger
| number could be counted. The OBJ
servations need only care, system and
| perseverance to be of real value, so
that the resulting record can be sent
| to Harvard, If one chooses to accept
| the formal invitation of the observa-
tory to do so. with the assurance that
it can there be usefully correlated with
| other similar records.
The estimate of magnitude should be
made between the periods of counting.
| The counting, it is recommended,
should engage the whole attention of
the observer while it is in progress.
Besides this matter of numbers and
brightness observations of color, of the
direction and character of path,
whether straight. curved or having
an angle: of shooting stars conspicuous
for size, explosion or for leaving a trail
and so on, are some of the interesting
things that may be noted by the
curious observer content with the use
| of the naked eye.
With a good camera higher grade
of work may be done, and the photo
| graphs will afford data to the astrono-
mer for determining the exact place
go IA Id .Nf arNxF
streaks on them appear to be refer
| rable TO the presence of shooting stars,
| which is by no means a sure eXpecta-
| ton. Shooting stars are too brief in
| duration to make much of an impress
sion on the plate; but it is quite pos
sible to get them, and one good trace
may be considered as being well worth
| while by the amateur. The rara avis
of Photographic observation would be
| the securing of a spectrum of a shoot
| ing star, but this must probably be left
to observations like those at Harvard
| and Yale, which are equipped with
| special apparatus. Harvard, indeed, is
the only observatory that has yet sue
| ceeded in getting a spectrum of a
shooting star, but this success was
secured only by accident. And the
chances of a shooting star flashing
| across the field of view in just the
| right way are always extremely small,
of course, under ordinary conditions,
| although with the great swarm that
was first expected-and may still, 1t
appears, be looked for with a reason
able degree of hope-a spectrum could
be hoped for with some confidence.
I'VE are in no such state of lively an
ticipation as in the last three years, "
says Professor Pickering but shall be
ready at Harvard for any emergency.
Hope is by no means abandoned, and
should this rare phenomenon appear in
it's pristine splendor it would be a pity
to lose the opportunity to secure for
astronomical science all that is possible
TO derive from it in the way of an in
creased knowledge. Our experience
while waiting for them has been good
drill, at least for this work. and the OBJ
servatory staff could undoubtedly step
in now and have the meteroic observ-
ing apparatus in full working order
within few minutes"
In the same way any preparations
made by amateurs of photography will
be useful. whatever happens, as a drill
and preparation for that most fascin-
ating department of photography, the
recording of the phenomena of astron-
omy The Harvard Observatory, more
over, will be glad to have any assist
ance which may be afforded 1t from
those who are particularly interested
in the phenomena.
-s-e-s-
MI TAIL TOWERS M0VE