Abstract
THE August meteors were observed under peculiarly favourable circumstances this year. Not only was the moon entirely absent during the display, but the weather, which so frequently interrupts such observations, remained fine night after night, thus allowing an unbroken series of watches to be maintained from the 6th to the 13th, and enabling the rise and fall of the display to be distinctly traced from a comparison of the results obtained each night. On the 10th, however, when the maximum was expected, the state of the sky scarcely admitted of successful observation, and the number of shooting-stars recorded that night was below the experiences of past years, but it must be remembered that, this being leap year, the chief intensity of the shower was due earlier than usual, so that it may have occurred before the evening of the 10th, when observers generally were watching for its reappearance.
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DENNING, W. The Shower of August Perseids, 1880. Nature 22, 470–471 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/022470a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/022470a0