as seen at Stonyhurst Observatory, October 18, 1848. 377 



stars of which shone through with a red light, and there were 

 occasional streamers of great brilliancy. About the same 

 time there seemed to be three principal centres of light, one 

 in the N.E., another in the N.W., and a third in the S.W. 

 An ill-defined arch was still stretched over the north, and two 

 distinct but faint arches arose from the same point in the N.E.; 

 one passing South of the Zenith through the Pleiades, the con- 

 stellations Aries, Pisces and Aquila, and the other rather north 

 of the Pleiades, through the constellations of Cassiopsea, Draco 

 and Lyra, and terminating with the other about the S.W. 

 At 7 h 30 m p.m. clouds were formed in the north, and passed in 

 small detached portions over the red mass in Auriga, which 

 continued to shine with brilliancy between them. 



At 7 h 40 m p.m. the observations were interrupted until about 

 8 h p.m. Between 8 h p.m. and 8 h 15 m p.m. nothing was ob- 

 served, except that the sky near the horizon in the N.E. and 

 W. was lighter than the rest. At 8 h 15 m p.m. an auroral 

 arch again appeared, terminating in these points; the red 

 colour again appeared in the N.E., whilst sheets of light began 

 to arise successively from every portion of the horizon from 

 W. to E. These rays, which presented many shades of red 

 mingled with white, began now to mount to a great altitude, 

 and presented the appearance of vast truncated cones, tending 

 to some common apex not very far from the zenith. 



The splendour of the scene increased with great rapidity. 

 At 9 h p.m. the rays of light had shot past the zenith and began 

 to meet round a point, corresponding about that hour, exactly 

 with the position of a Andromedae, which star was then about 

 one hour distant from its culminating point. Between 9 h p.m. 

 and 9 h 15 m p.m. the heavens presented the magnificent ap- 

 pearance of a mighty fan of crimson light stretching out from 

 a Andromedae, and presenting over two-thirds of the heavens, 

 from S.W. to E., one unbroken sheet of light, varied only by 

 its different shades of crimson mingled with white, which 

 served to distinguish the rays, and the vibratory motion which 

 pervaded it, while waves of paler light shot up from time to 

 time with the rapidity of lightning. 



At this time the heavens were divided by a distinct and 

 clearly defined line into two portions, the greater part being 

 brilliant to the extreme, while the remainder, though cloud- 

 less, appeared so black, that but for the stars which shone 

 with great distinctness, I should have imagined it overcast 

 with a very heavy cloud; the rays which formed the boundary 

 inclined over like the sides of a spherical triangle, whilst those 

 in the more northern regions appeared vertical. 



At 9 h 15 m p.m. the splendour of the spectacle reached its 

 Phil. Mag. S. 3. Vol. 33. No. 223. Nov. 1 84-8. 2 C 



