Abstract
FROM twenty meteors, mostly with streaks, I deduced the radiant point at R.A. 40°, Dec. 56° N., August 3-7. On August 10 I saw a large number (fifty-seven per hour) of Perseïds, many of them with short tracks near the focus, and almost invariably with streaks, from 43° + 58°. On August 12 I observed quite an outburst of precisely similar meteors from a sharply-defined centre at 50° + 55°, and registered fourteen of them, but many others were noted between 12h. and 14h. On the 16th, between the same hours, I saw five paths close to a radiant at 60° + 59°. These had streaks and apparently exhibited the same features of motion, colour, &c., as those recorded on the few preceding nights. Can these four positions represent one and the same system of Perseïds with an apparent displacement of the radiant centre on the several nights of observation? The places may be regarded as accurate for the dates, and though quite possibly they are separate showers, it is at least singular they became so well marked one on each night. If the positions include the same system then the focus of divergence appears to have shifted from 40° + 58° on the 3rd–7th to 60° + 59° on the 16th, so that while the declination remained nearly the same the R.A. had advanced twenty degrees, which in D. 59° N. is equivalent to ten linear degrees of space.
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DENNING, W. The Radiant Centre of the Perseids. Nature 16, 362 (1877). https://doi.org/10.1038/016362a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/016362a0
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