CC)Ki<i:sl'()NDI'XCE. 



KicrKi: 2^>b. 



Beaded Lightning. 

 Flashes meeting. 



I h.ll 1 MM. I I.ASIIKS. 

 To till- lulitors of " Knowi.edgi:." 



Sirs. — I si-nd hficwith five prints of lightning ll.ishi's which 



I was fortunate enough to secure during a thunderstorm of 

 uinisual severity, for this part of 

 the Kingdom, on Qth-tOth August 

 last. 



In the November issue of 

 " Knowi.i-dge" there was an 

 article and sketches of a storm 

 .it Garessio, Italy, which was in- 

 teresting to read of, and would 

 have been more so had the 

 sketches been photographs, be- 

 cause, in the light of what I have 

 got myself, I do not see how 

 Mr. Parkinson's eye could have 

 taken in and followed the outlines 

 of the Jive streaks, which he 

 shows in his first sketch. 



I annex a short description of 

 the storm, with details of the 

 various points noticeable on the 

 photographs, which may be of 

 interest to readers. 



The thunderstorm, during 

 which the photographs here 

 reproduced were taken, occurred 



on the 9th-10th August, 1911, and, in 



Scotland at any rate, covered a line or 



belt of about twenty or thirty miles in 



width. At Dumfries and at Lauder. 



Herwickshire, it was seen to the eastward ; 



then it seems to have passed right up the 



east coast of Scotland, being very near 



at St. Andrew's, .Arbroath, Stonehaven, 



Aberdeen. At Elgin it passed to the east- 

 ward, but so far away that little, if any, 



thunder was heard. 



At Stonehaven, Kincardinshire, where 



the photographs were taken, there were 



two distinct storms. The first storm 



commenced about 9 p.m., lasting till 



about 10.30 p.m., when it passed over 



and to landward of the town. About 1 1 



p.m. the second came up, lasting till 2 a.m.. 



and passing entirely seaward. From 9 to 



10 o'clock no rain fell. 



I had read, some weeks previously, that 



"in photographing lightning it is neces- 

 sary beforehand and in daylight to focus 



the camera as for a distant view, 

 and to mark on the baseboard 

 where the pointer stops." This, 

 fortunately, I had done. The 

 camera was stationary and pointed 

 southward. 



In Figures 296, 297, and 298, 

 the lightning flashes coming from 

 i|uite different parts of the sky 

 all meet earth (or possibly the 

 seal in exactly the same spot on 

 the horizon. They might not, 

 however, all do so if seen at right 

 angles to the present view. 



Figure 297 is rather a curious 

 Hash from cloud to cloud and 

 then to earth. 



In Figure 299 the flash ramifies 

 only near to the horizon. 



Headed lightning is seen in 

 l-"igures 296 and 298. 



I-igures 296, 297, and 298 were 

 probably taken in this order. 



Fk.ike 2\)^). 



Flash ramifying near 

 the horizon. 



Flash from cloud to 

 cloud. 



though I have no note of it, and Figures 299 and 300 show 

 the storm passing to 1,'indward. 



Any make of camera would, of course, do for the subject, 

 with the shutter open at its l.irgcst aperture, and the same 

 would apply to the plate, as long as it was not too slow. In 

 this case I used Kodoid Cut 

 Films, and developed them in a 

 tank with diluted developer. 



H. Hargkave Cowan. 

 Fr.GiN, Scotland. 



MISCFLLANFOUSOBSEKVA- 

 TIONS, 1912. 



To t he Hditors of "Kkowledgil." 

 Sirs, — I should like to report 



to you the following miscellaneous 



astronomical observations made 



here by means of a three-inch 



equatorial refractor since the 



beginning of the year 1912. 

 1912, March 5th, about 8^ 27" 



C. S. T., a bright, rapidly moving 



telescopic meteor was observed to 



traverse the eighty-four-diameter 



field of my three-inch refractor. 



The meteor did not consist 



merely of a streak, but resembled 



more nearly a band of light. 



especially when it disappeared at the /. 



end of the field of view, where the end 



of it seemed to grow slightly larger and 

 brighter ; it moved from \\". to F. and 

 required somewhere in the neighbourhood 

 of one or one and one-half seconds to pass 

 entirely across the eighty -four power field ; 

 it was while in color, the light being not 

 intense, but rather soft. This meteor 

 passed only a short distance s. of the star 

 cluster M. 38 .-Vurigae, and in its flight 

 tra%ersed a small group of stars near 

 that object. 



The occultation of t Arietis by the 

 Moon, at 7" 56'" C.S.T., on 1912, March 

 22nd iXautical Almanac. 1912), was 

 witnessed with great interest. Some ten 

 minutes before the phenomenon took 

 place, happening to point the telescope 

 at the Moon I discovered that an occulta- 

 tion of that star was imminent. At the 

 precise moment of ingress the star was 

 instantly cut ofi from view by the Moon's 



limb. The whole sight was very 



pleasing, especially as the star 



was of magnitude 5-1, and suffi- 

 ciently bright to remain easily 



visible in the strongest glare of 



our satellite ; the Moon was then 



a thin crescent, the occultation 



occurring on the dark side. .-X 



few fainter stars were in the 



same field. Forbidding local con- 

 ditions prevented an observation 



of the egress of t Arietis from 



behind the Moon's disc, but 



instead another little star near by 



was seen to practically graze the 



s. limb of the Moon, at its closest 



being only about 20" s. p.. from 



the limb. This strange phenome- 

 non took place very soon after 



the predicted occultation. 



Mercury was observed on 1912 



March 24th, 27th, and 30th, 



on every evening being easiU- 



FicrKi; 300. 



Storm passing to land- 

 ward. 



