The Meteoric Shower

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 20, 1866

The Meteoric Shower.

Prof. Loomis of Yale College writes concerning the late expected meteoric shower, explaining all that is known of the nature of meteorolites. He says on Monday night, Nov. 12, a company of observers at New Haven counted 690 shooting stars in five hours and twenty minutes, which is about four times the average number visible for the same period throughout the year. Tuesday night, Nov. 13, another company counted 881 shooting stars in five hours, which is five times the average number. On Wednesday night, the sky was overcast so that no observations could be made. It is concluded that the number of shooting stars visible about the 13th was very remarkable, nevertheless this display was not to be compared with that of Nov. 13, 1833, in which the number of meteors was variously estimated at from 10,000 to 30,000 per hour. The grand display, therefore, which it was supposed might occur this year, has not been witnessed in the United States, and probably not in Europe or it would have been announced to us by telegraph. It may have been witnessed in Asia or the Pacific ocean, but if such had been the case, it seems probable that the number visible in the United States would have been greater than it was. The telegram a day or two since, purporting to have come from Greenwich, Prof. Loomis thinks is spurious, and concludes that it is probable that there has not been witnessed this year in any part of the world, a display of meteors at all, to be compared with the display of 1883.—Detroit Tribune.