1866. | Astronomy. 391 
the idea of change more conceivable, it must be admitted that any 
alterations of form or brightness which may have been in progress 
since the employment of the telescope are so masked by discre- 
pancies of declination as to preclude the possibility of drawing any 
fully satisfactory conclusion. 
It would be superfluous to refer-to the variations which are 
so well known to arise from diversity of weather, instruments, 
eyes, and pencils, and especially from the unwarrantable careless- 
ness of engravers: it only remains to be considered whether these 
are the sole causes of the striking differences by which we are 
confronted, or whether, after making due allowance for all these 
sources of error, there may yet bea residuum of actual change. 
‘No other means of investigating this point seem so promising 
as the multiplication of designs by different observers, in different 
climates, and with different optical means. From such an accumu- 
lation of testimony we might hope to deduce a much closer 
approximation to the truth. 
The sketch, of which a copy was shown to the meeting, was 
commenced in December, 1863, and continued with many interrup- 
tions till the present season. 
In this attempt to show some part of what may be visible in a 
certain circumscribed portion of the nebulosity, with an achromatic 
of 54 inches aperture and an eye of average capacity, the object has 
been to represent the general arrangement of the luminous haze; 
and the few stars contained in the sketch are inserted merely for 
the purpose of more convenient identification and reference. 
The author stated that he had the less hesitation in bringing 
forward these particulars, as he had the pleasure of knowing that 
his observations on the “rift” and the “lake” or opening, had been 
in great measure confirmed by Mr. Knott with his beautiful 74-inch 
object-glass; and it was therefore believed there would be little 
difficulty on the part of any adequately provided observer in veri- 
fying them. 
A. 8. Herschel, Esq., has given an interesting account of the 
Path of a Detonating Meteor. Shooting-stars, it is well known, 
are so abundantly observed on certain nights of the year, that 
already, at the end of the last century, the term meteorode was 
applied on this account to the night of the 10th of August. It is 
suspected that large meteors also make their appearance on fixed 
nights of the year, although not with the same frequency or regu- 
larity as the most constant star-showers. 
On the 21st of November, 1865, at 6h. 5m., G. M. T., a meteor 
about three times as bright as Venus is at its brightest, and having 
an apparent diameter of 8’ or 10’, was observed by Mr. Warren De 
la Rue, near Cranford. The meteor rose from the eastern horizon, 
being surrounded at first, like a comet, by a parabola-shaped -hale 
VOL. III. 2D 
