Page:The Meteors of December 12-13, 1866, as observed at Millbrook, Tuam (IA paper-doi-10 1093 mnras 27 5 205).pdf/2

206 magnitude and with a serpentine course. There was no well-marked time of maximum display, but there seemed to be alternate periods of repose and activity.

After Gemini passed the meridian the sky became overcast; and, though I watched closely for openings in the clouds, I saw nothing until 3 8, when an immense fire-ball flashed through a misty break in Leo, and all again was darkness. Soon after this it partially cleared towards the east, and from time to time I was able to catch sight of a meteor moving in that direction. At about five o’clock there was heavy rain that continued for half-an-hour; and at 5 53 I remarked one meteor falling from the direction of Gemini through Hydra. The west and north were still clouded, and I saw no more until Saturn appeared enveloped in the breaking day, when I left off observing.

As there were some of those meteors that might be well distinguished from the rest, I was careful to mark their places on a map, hoping that they might, perhaps, be identified by other observers, and have their height determined.

The most remarkable appeared as follows:—

1018 Close by Procyon, in a line from δ Geminorum; as large as Sirius. 1053 Through Præsepe, in a line parallel with Castor and Pollux. 1111 From Procyon, in line produced from direction of β Aurigæ. 1151 Precisely over g, and between ζ and γ Leonis. 011 From close below α Ursæ, across ν. 114 Near Sirius, between μ and γ; larger than Sirius. 135 From ε, in a curve between η and γ Leonis. 430 From Draco, across the Camelopard to the true Pole, in a perpendicular to the Pole and ζ Ursæ Min. 436 In Corona, pointing from near δ Böotis to near δ Coronæ.

Place of observation, Lat. 53° 37’ 43”, Long. 8° 53’ (approximate).

In the Monthly Notices for December 1866, Sir John Herschel, having arrived at the conclusion that the orbital motion of the November meteors is retrograde, leaves it to the advocates of the nebular hypothesis to reconcile that fact with their theory.

The nebular hypothesis supposes that space was once,