File:Astronomy for the use of schools and academies (1882) (14761194241).jpg

Identifier: astronomyforuseo00gill (find matches)
Title: Astronomy for the use of schools and academies
Year: 1882 (1880s)
Authors: Gillet, J. A. (Joseph Anthony), 1837-1908 Rolfe, W. J. (William James), 1827-1910
Subjects: Astronomy
Publisher: New York : Potter, Ainsworth, & Co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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takesplace in the month of August.The orbit is a very eccentricellipse, reaching far beyondNeptune. As the meteoric dis-play is about equally brilliantevery year, it seems probablethat the meteoroids form astream quite uniformly dis-tributed throughout the wholeorbit. It probably takes oneof the meteoroids about a hun-dred and twenty-four years topass around this orbit. 313. Th e Nov em be? Meteors.— A somewhat brilliant mete-oric shower also occurs annu-ally, about the 13th of Novem-ber. The radiant point ofthese meteors is in the con-stellation Leo, and hence theyare often called the Leonids.Their orbit has been deter-mined with great accuracy, andis shown in Fig. 354. Whilethe November meteors are notusually very numerous or bright,a remarkably brilliant displayFlg- 353> of them has been seen once in about thirty-three or thirty-four years : hence we infer, that,while there are some meteoroids scattered throughout thewhole extent of the orbit, the great majority are massed in
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ASTRONOMY. 313 a group which traverses the orbit in a little over thirty-three years. A conjectural form of this condensed group isshown in Fig. 355. The group is so large that it takes ittwo or three years to pass the perihelion point: hence theremay be a brilliant meteoric display two or three years insuccession. The last brilliant display of these meteors was in theyears 1866 and 1867. The display was visiblein this country only ashort time before sun-rise, and therefore didnot attract general atten-tion. The display of1833 was remarkablybrilliant in this country,and caused great con-sternation among theignorant and supersti-tious. 314. Connection betweenMeteors and Comets. — Ithas been found that acomet which appeared in1866, and which is desig-nated as 1866, I., hasexactly the same orbitand period as the No-

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