Mr. Forty's Queries on Shooting Stars. 347 



spheric Phsenomena," the Doctor has of late years recorded, the 

 number of his observations on small Meteors or Shooting Stan ; 

 these, in the year 1820 were, in January 7, February 2, March 1, 

 April 2, May 2, June 1, July 15, August SO, September 10, 

 October 4, November 2, and December 5 ; making 131 in this 

 year : In 1819 the annual number of such observations was 121. 



The singular fact, of the month of August having furnished so 

 very disproportioned a number of these observations, is accom- 

 panied by the mention, that 35 of these were observed in one 

 hour, which preceded midnight on the 9th of August last — they 

 shot in different directions, and three of them, whose visible paths 

 lay between the constellations Lyra and Ursa Major, were cau- 

 dated or appeared with tails ; and the Doctor adds, "their spark- 

 ling trains having been left brilliantly illuminated, for several se- 

 conds of time subsequent to the disappearance of the ignited 

 bodies : this indeed was the grandest display of meteors we ever 

 remember to have seen in so short a period, arising from the very 

 gaseous or inflammable state of the air." 



I have been induced to trouble you on this occasion^ principally 

 on account of the sentence last quoted, with the hope that this 

 may meet the eye of Dr. Burney, and induce so indefatigable an 

 observer and able a calculator, to commence a series of more mi- 

 nute observations on Shooting Stars and Meteors, with a view to 

 the scientific solution of the following Queries, viz. 

 1st. Whether a small degree of planetary Light, like that of the 

 Moon when only one or two days old, be not sufficient to ob- 

 scure numerous of the smallest and medium shooting Stars ? *; 

 and the Full Moon able to obscure the whole of them, and also 

 render invisible the smaller Shooting Meteors ? 

 2nd. With a dear Sky and the absence of planetary Light, are 

 not Shooting Stars ofvv.ry frequent occurrence, at all seasons ? 

 and in everv constellation, or portion of visible space ? 

 3d. Wiiether some of these do not shoot in all directions ? ; al- 

 though more frc(]uentlv they may incline downwards or towards 

 the horizon, than upwards ? 

 4 th. If of two Observers of the same shooting Stat or Meteor, one 

 should instantly cause his eyes pretty accurately to follow the 

 inovivg lAglit, and the other should not so follow it, would not 

 these observers differ in their conceptions of what they had 

 seem ? ; so that one might describe a tail or train of light to 

 he left for a short time, and the other mention no such ap- 

 pendage or occurrence. 

 5th. After comparing together a long series of Observations, made 



• I mean such as Dr. Buniey must often have obsci veil, amongst the 

 131 .thuoting ^lnl•s mentioned in the Text. 



X X 2 with 



