Apr 1873
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1873natur...7..483b&link_type=abstract
Nature, Volume 7, Issue 182, pp. 483 (1873).
Other
Scientific paper
I SEND the following observations of the shooting stars of the April period, viz., the 19th and 20th. On the 19th I began to watch at 10h, but saw no more until 11 45. I then watched them until 3h 15m. I found they seemed to come in the region of the heavens about Corona, so I confined my observations to that part as I had not a situation where I could see the opposite side as well By 10 o'clock Hercules was quite above the building, so there may have been some meteors visible earlier, when these constellations were too low for me to see. The first night they were all comprised in a triangle, which would be formed by a line stretching from Vega by way of Ophiuchus to Mars, and thence up to Arcturus and by Corona back to Vega. They were pretty equally distributed over this region. The next night they were much more concentrated in Ophiuchus and Hercules and towards Libra. I was not able to determine the radiant, so I confined myself to reckoning them accurately in intervals of fifteen minutes, which time I had conveniently marked for me by the church clocks, and only observed their tracks approximately. On the second night I noted the position and direction of each which shows their concentration about the part named. On the nineteenth there were 25-15 horizontal, 10 vertical. On the 20th from 9.45 to 2.45 there were 33-22 vertical and 11 horizontal. Those I call vertical by distinction were almost all just half way between horizontal and vertical, i.e. at an angle of 45°. It was curious how this angle predominated. It was also curious that the first night the horizontal ones predominated, and the second night the vertical. I do not know if I am wrong (1) in assuming that we pass through the node of the orbit of the meteors at this time, and (2) in inferring from this assumption that the angle at which they principally appear to us would be a guide to the inclination of the node. Would the fact of their being horizontal be any proof that the inclination of their orbit is small, and their being vertical a proof that it is much greater, and of a somewhat similar angle ? But this would not explain the fact of the majority being horizontal the first night and the majority at a greater angle the next night. One seen on the 20th was intermittent, it ran for a long distance, and became visible at intervals of a few seconds a little way farther on. Only a few were of any size, and the first night all but two were extremely small and very faint, with Very short tracks. The next night they were not only greater in number but larger, brighter, and with longer tracks. A few left tracks lasting a second or two. One only moved very fast. The first night there was one quite vertical upwards. This was the only instance. The majority were from E. to S. or E. to W. on both nights; and the only two of any length on the 19th were one running out of Corona and one running into it. It seemed curious to me how these should be so much longer than all the others and yet lie so close to the point of apparent divergence of them all. The following is a list for the two nights of the number in each 15 minutes : April 19.-From 11.45 to 12, 2 ; 12.15, 5; 12.30, 2; 1245, 2; 13, 1; 13.15, 5; 13.30, 1; 13.45, 0; 14, 3; 14.15, 2; 14.30, 0; 14.45, 1; 15, 1; 15 to 15.30, 0; Total: 25.
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