SHOWER OF METEORS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LII, Issue 4806, 8 September 1932, Page 1

SHOWER OF METEORS.

POSSIBILITY OF DISPLAY,

PREDICTION BY ASTRONOMER

The possibility of a prominent shower of shooting stars being visible in tire Southern Hemisphere this month is envisaged in a cablegram received by an Auckland astronomer from M. Maize], an astronomer at the Russian observatory at Tashkent, Turkestan. The Russian atsronomer has calculated that a comet known as Peltier’s Comet has an orbit which intersects that of the earth, and consequently when the earth passes the point of intersection this month the meteoric matter travelling in the wake of the comet may make- a brilliant display of shooting stars. The point of radiation of the meteors, Mr. Maizel expects, will be to the south-west of the constellation Orion, at present visible only in the morning sky. The possibility of a meteoric display mainly depends on the closeness of intersection of the orbits. As Comet Peltier was a'new object, details of which had not yet reached the Dominion, its orbit could not be accurately known, and there was therefore an element of doubt in the Russian prediction. If the expected display did eventuate, howevei’, it should prove an awe-inspir-ing spectacle in which hundreds of shooting stars would be seen each morning the phenomenon continues. As the display could be seen only in the Southern Hemisphere, astronomers throughout the Dominion would be keenly anticipating the event.