midnight
All the stars in the neighborhood of the Earth , and many actually behind it , had their rays refracted , diffused , radiated , and finally converged to a focus by the atmosphere , as if by a double convex lens of gigantic power . Whilst the travellers were profoundly absorbed in the contemplation of this wondrous sight , a sparkling shower of shooting stars suddenly flashed over the Earth 's dark surface , making it for a moment as bright as the external ring . Hundreds of bolides , catching fire from contact with the atmosphere , streaked the darkness with their luminous trails , overspreading it occasionally with sheets of electric flame . The Earth was just then in her perihelion , and we all know that the months of November and December are so highly favorable to the appearance of these meteoric showers that at the famous display of November , 1866 , astronomers counted as many as 8,000 between midnight and four o'clock . Barbican explained the whole matter in a few words . The Earth , when nearest to the sun , occasionally plunges into a group of countless meteors travelling like comets , in eccentric orbits around the grand centre of our solar system . The atmosphere strikes the rapidly moving bodies with such violence as to set them on fire and render them visible to us in beautiful star showers .