A CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 



95 



must assign to meteors the properties of dense matter, subject to the laws of 

 gravitation ; as this fact has been sufficiently established in numerous 

 instances where portions of them have been seen to strike the earth, which 

 upon examination have proved to be solid bodies ; the analysis showing 

 them to be, in general, composed of native iron, sulphuret of nickel, quartz 

 and magnesia. 



The object of this communication, however, is not to advance any new 

 theory, but to put on record the circumstances which attended the exhi- 

 bition of the remarkable meteor of the 30th of September, as witnessed at 

 Cambridge. 



My attention was called to this phaenomenon by Miss Jenny Lind, who 

 happening at the time of its first appearance to be looking at the planet 

 Saturn through the great equatorial telescope, nearly in the direction of 

 the meteor's path, was startled by 

 a sudden flash of light, no doubt 

 much concentrated by the power 

 of the glass ; probably not more 

 than a second of time intervened 

 before the meteor exploded, lea- 

 ving a bright train of light some 

 8° long, extending from near the 

 head of Medusa towards a point 

 3° below the star Alpha Arietis, 

 this being the direction of motion, 

 and projecting a portion of its 

 mass forward about 2°, as repre- 

 sented in fig. 1, 



This took place at 8^ S^" m. s, t. 

 of the Observatory, and in or 

 very near the small constellation 

 " Musca Borealis " in right ascen- 

 sion 2^ 30™ and north declination 

 27°. There were numerous radia- 

 tions, but nothing sparkling in its 

 appearance. At 8^ 57°* this had 

 subsided into a serpentine figure 

 about half a degree broad in the 

 widest part and 10° long, as seen 

 in fig. 2. 



At 9 o'clock the preceding por- 

 tion had extended upward, curved 

 in the form represented in fig. 3 ; 

 or as expressed by a person who 

 noticed the same appearance at 

 Framingham, it appeared " to 

 draw up its head like a serpent." 



Three minutes later it had as- 

 sumed the figure given in fig. 4. 



During these changes the me- 

 teor had continued a bright, con- 

 spicuous object, some 10° in 

 length, lying nearly horizontal. It 

 was examined with three different telescopes — the comet seeker, a 4-feet 

 refractor, and the great equatorial. The appearance was that of a con- 



