The August Perseids

Abstract

THE shower of Perseids has been a fairly conspicuous one this o year notwithstanding the somewhat unfavourable circumstances attending the display. On the nights of August 9, 10, and 11 the nearly full moon was visible during the greater part of the time available for observation, and robbed the phenomenon of its chief prominence during the evening hours. Those, however, who continued to watch the heavens until after the moon set on the early morning of the nth must have been rewarded by a tolerably rich exhibition of meteors. The number observable by one person fell little short of 100 per hour, and this rate compared with similar observations in past years proves the late display to have fully maintained its decided character. Numerically this shower of Perseids cannot be placed in the same category as the brilliant meteoric storms of November 13, 1866, and November 27, 1872 and 1885, but it must be remembered that the August shower is one which returns annually, and apparently without much variation in its leading features. Its frequent and regular appearances compensate for whatever it lacks in other respects, and it yields many fine meteors of the same type as the Leonids, flashing out with remarkable swiftness, and projecting lines of phosphorescence upon the background of the sky.