the Meteor of February 11, 1850. 267 



Near Hartwell it was as large as the full moon. 



At Deddington its appearance at first was much larger than 

 Jupiter, and when lost sight of its diameter was greater than 

 that of the moon. 



2nd. The following descriptions are by observers who were 

 situated between 50 and 100 miles of the place of the explo- 

 sion : — 



At Prestwood its disc appeared to be about one-half the 

 size of the moon. 



At Bath, a ball 8 or 9 inches in diameter. 



At Birmingham, a column 2 feet in width and 20 feet in 

 length. 



At Carrington^ an elongated luminous ball, smaller than 

 the moon. 



At Blakeney, Norfolk, it was 20 feet in length. 



At Southampton, a full-sized orange. 



3rd. At places exceeding the distance of 100 miles :— 



At Yeovil, two or three times the size of Mars. 



At Langport, equal to Venus when brightest. 



At Hull, one-half the size of the moon. 



At Sidmouth, a bar of light a yard in length. 



At Bristol, a ball of fire. 



At Penzance, an immense globular expanse of flame. 



There is little doubt that its dazzling brightness has caused 

 some deception, and as imagination may have helped to en- 

 large the object, it perhaps will be better to take the smaller 

 estimations generally. It seems, however, that at the distance 

 of 50 miles it was compared in apparent size to that of the 

 full moon; had it been so large, its diameter would have been 

 about 2500 feet. 



In the second set of estimations it was compared to a ball 

 8 or 9 inches in diameter ; to a ball smaller than the moon ; 

 to a disc about one-half the size of the moon ; and to a full- 

 sized orange ; and in the third set to one-half the size of the 

 moon. It is difficult to understand so as to make use of some 

 of the comparisons ; it is exceedingly doubtful to what size 

 to refer a ball 8 or 9 inches in diameter; the full moon ap- 

 pears to different persons of different sizes ; some will say she 

 is 6 inches in diameter, and others will say she equals 12 inches. 

 Let us give some allowance for imagination, and the best re- 

 sult at which I can arrive is, that at about 100 miles distance 

 the meteor subtended an angle of about 12' of arc, and if 

 so, its real diameter was about 1800 feet. Where the ac- 

 counts are so vague, the most moderate calculations are most 

 likely to be true ; I therefore consider the diameter of the 

 body to have been from 1800 feet to 2000 feet. 



T2 



