The November Leonids

Abstract

THERE appears to be little prospect of a brilliant recurrence of the November meteors on about November 15 next, though the moon will offer little impediment, being past the last quarter. The parent comet returned unobserved to perihelion in the spring of 1899, and is now far on its outward journey, beyond the orbit of Jupiter, so that any meteors appearing this year must be at a vast distance from the supposed derivative body. There is evidence, however, that minor groups circulate along the orbit, and that these are sufficiently condensed to produce pretty rich showers in certain years, as in 1879, 1888, &c. The system or stream is no doubt a continuous one, for every year at the middle of November some meteors of the swift, streaking class are seen shooting from the radiant in the “Sickle.” It is obviously necessary, as a means to increase our knowledge of the shower, to watch for the display annually, and to record the time of its maximum and the observed horary number of its meteors.