SHOOTING STARS

Hokitika Guardian, 13 October 1933, Page 3

SHOOTING STARS

NOT SEEN IN NEW ZEALAND WELLINGTON, October 11. The dazzling display -of shooting stars which “enthralled Europe,” according, to-a cable,, . was' not- seen last night or the previous night by any of Wellington’s astronomers, and no report has as yet been received by

the Dominion Observatory of any such

shower being seen by anyone in this country. In the absence of further and more detailed information 'about this wonderful shower of shooting stars;

it is not possible for astronomers in this part of the world to say unroll that is enlightening. A shower of shooting' stars from the region of the constellation Orion has been predicted to return on October log and another shower is expected to occur on October 18. Whether the shower seen in Europe is either or both of these showers arriving a week too soon remains to be decided byi the abstruse calculations of astronomers. There is a further possibility that the shower seen is the famous- iLeonid ,shower, which was expected last year, and which failed to keep the appointment that astronomers liacl made for it. Astronomical opinion has been divided as to what became of this expected shower. Soihe say that it has gone out of existence altogether i as a visible phenomenon and will never return, while others maintain j that its orbit lias been altered since it was last seen from the earth, and ! that it has adopted a new timetable. A supporter of this latter theory is Professor Pickering, ami lie has predicted that the Leonid meteor shower will be seen in Europe in. November this year, and in America next year. It may be that lie - is right in his prediction of the return of the Leonids, but wrong to the extent of a few weeks in his estimated time.

Whatever is the origin of this shower seen in Europe, the fact remains' that the current year in New Zealand, as well as elsewhere, has been exceptionally fruitful in meteors. These have- made more or less isolated appearances and have not been seen in showers; hut their number and brilliance .lmve been, such that 1933 will go down in astronomical records as a year of exceptional meteors. \