Abstract
WELL may Mr. Greg, in his catalogue of meteoric radiants, published in 1876, affix a remark indicating the all-surpassing character of the mid-November meteors. For if there is one star shower more striking than all the rest, it is assuredly the Leonids. Every one who has seen the phenomenon at its best, is prepared to admit that it furnishes a grander spectacle than any other system, and will have realised that, once seen, it impresses itself indelibly upon the memory. There can be very few people living now who witnessed the great shower in America on the morning of November 14, 1833, but there are many Englishmen who vividly remember the fine but less splendid exhibition of 1860. With a swiftness unsurpassed among meteor streams, and with a brilliancy quite their own, the Leonids belong to the most striking class of these bodies, and offer a great distinction to the slow and gentle flights of the Andro-inedes, or meteors of Biela's comet which present themselves about a fortnight later. It is true the Leonids are only manifested, in vast abundance, once in a generation, and that, considered as an annual display, they usually fall below the strength of the August Perseids. But, considering all things, the November shower is undoubtedly entitled to precedence. The writer saw the Leonids in 1866, he also observed the rich displays of Andromedes in 1872 and 1885, and has been fortunate enough to witness many bright returns of the Perseids and of other prominent systems; but, of all such spectacles, one only, by its surpassing splendour, created an impression which still lives fresh in the memory, and that was the Leonids of November 1866.
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DENNING, W. The Star Showers of November. Nature 53, 7–9 (1895). https://doi.org/10.1038/053007a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/053007a0