[Letters to Editor]

Abstract

“F.R.A.S.” is right in surmising that the magnitude of a shower does not depend upon the number of meteors that may be actually observed, but rather upon the general mass or quantity of matter imported Into the atmosphere at the time. This may appear to be a distinction without a difference, but as the number of shooting stars counted by an observer will be influenced by the altitude of the radiant, the clearness, of the sky, &c., it is evident that the intensity of the phenomenon cannot be fully measured by such results. It is assumed that the radiant is the same as that usually associated with the time of the year at which the shower occurs.