A CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 113 
correct, the Perth observation is entirely wrong ; and the meteor could not 
have risen about 6° above the horizon of Durham, instead of 10° or 11° as 
estimated. I am unable in any degree to explain these conflicting results. 
3. The observations of Professor Kelland at Granton, and those at Perth, 
through the great azimuths of 125° and 130°, described by the meteor with 
such remarkable deliberation of motion, lead, when analysed, to the very 
same results which presented themselves to the mind of the spectator intui- 
tively; namely, that the motion must have been sensibly rectilinear, equable 
and parallel to the horizon at Edinburgh. Assuming that the greatest alti- 
tude at Edinburgh was 15°, and the bearing then N. 63° W. (true), we may 
calculate that the altitude should have been on this hypothesis, when first 
‘seen by Professor Kelland, 11° 4:7’, instead of 12° as observed ; at explosion, 
6° 59’ (7° observed), and at its final disappearance 0° 47! (instead of 0° 30! 
observed). Again, at Perth, the observed altitude, when first seen, was 915, 
and the calculated altitude 5° 8', taking the maximum altitude at 173°. The 
coincidence is, on the whole, remarkable, though it would be rash to push it 
to an extreme, as an error of some degrees may exist in the assumption of 
the direction of the meteor’s course. Some later observations, received from 
Mr. Curtis at Longford, and a consideration of the effects of perspective at 
Perth and Edinburgh, incline me to admit that the path might make an angle 
3° or 4° greater with the meridian than I have above supposed. These con- 
clusions are independent of the actual distance or parallax of the meteor; 
which, as I have said, cannot be determined without further observations, 
which I should be glad to receive from any quarter, but more particularly 
from Ireland, and from the centre and N.W. of Scotland. If correct, they 
entitle us to infer that the meteor in question was most probably a body mo- 
ving in space, in a path little curved, and not revolving round the earth. 
No. 11.—From the Bombay Times, March 13, 1850. 
*¢ Palinurus, at sea, February 21st, 1850.—The following memorandum of 
meteors lately seen, I hope may prove interesting to you :—Feb. 7th, latitude 
24° 58! N., longitude 66° 16! Εἰ. at 7 p.M., a large meteor, about {th the dia- 
meter of the moon, appeared to the eastward, about 40° elevation, and vanished 
to the north-eastward, about 25° elevation.” 
No. 12.—Ibid. ~ 
« February 10th, latitude 24° 18! N., longitude 66° 30! E., at 8°30 P.M., a 
large meteor, at least 1th the diameter of the moon, appeared, elevated 8° 
§.S.W., and disappeared again instantly about 2° to the southward. This 
meteor displayed a most brilliant light, and had a clearly defined short tail, 
not more than four times the diameter of its body in length.” 
No. 13.—Meteor of February 11. The following details may be of interest 
in addition to the particulars given in the table. ' 
[From the Derbyshire Courier. ] 
“ Southgate House, Feb. 14, 1850. 
** Sir,—In looking over this morning’s ‘ Times,’ there appear two letters, 
one dated from Oxford, the other from Lambeth, mentioning the appearance 
-of a most extraordinary body in the heavens, which took place between ten 
and eleven o’clock on Monday last, the eleventh inst. On the same evening, 
_ Mr. Henry John B. Bowdon and myself were returning home from Mount St. 
Mary’s, which place we left shortly after ten o’clock, and just before we arrived 
at home, it being a particularly dark night, the entire atmosphere of a sudden 
1850. I 
ἐ 
