VOL. XXIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 1 1 1 



given place of the meteor, it is plain, it was seen about 4 of an hour past the 

 meridian, or in S. by W. and by its declination it could not be above 24° high 

 at Leipsic, though the same, at Schlaize was about 60 high : the angle there- 

 fore at the meteor was about 36°. Whence, by an easy calculus, it will be 

 found, that the same was not less than 16 German miles distant in a right line 

 from Leipsic, and above 6-I- such miles perpendicular above the horizon, that is 

 at least 30 English miles high in the air. And though the observer says of it, 

 immotus perstitit per semi-quadrantem horae, it is not to be understood that it 

 kept its place like a fixed star, all the time of its appearance ; but that it had no 

 very remarkable progressive motion. For he himself has, at the end of the 

 said Ephemerides given a figure of it, which he has marked fig. d, whence it 

 aj)pears that it darted downwards obliquely to the right-hand, and where it 

 ended, left two globules or nodes, not visible but by an optic tube (a tele- 

 scope.) 



The same Mr. Gottfried Kirch, in the beginning of a German treatise of 

 his, concerning the great comet which appeared in the year 168O, entitled 

 Newe Himmels Zeitung, printed at Nurenburg, anno J 68], gives an account 

 of such another luminous meteor seen likewise at Leipsic, on the 12d of May 

 J 680, O. S. about 3 in the morning: which though he himself saw not, was 

 yet there observed by several persons, who made various reports of it, but the 

 more intelligent agreed that it was seen descending in the north, and left be- 

 hind it a long white streak where it had passed. At the same time, at Haar- 

 burgh, the like appearance was seen in the N. E. or rather N. N. E. ; as also 

 at Hamburg, Lubec and Stralsund, all which are about 40 German miles 

 from Leipsic: but in all these places, by persons unacquainted with the 

 manner of properly describing things of this kind. So that all we can con- 

 clude from it is, that this meteor was exceedingly high above the earth, as well 

 as the former. 



All the circumstances of these phaenomena agree with what was seen in 

 England in 17O8 ; but it commonly so happens, that these contingent appear- 

 ances escape the eyes of those that are best qualified to give a good account of 

 them. It is plain however, that this sort of luminous vapour, is not exceed- 

 ingly seldom thus collected ; and when the like shall again happen, the curious 

 are entreated to take more notice of them than has been hitherto done, that 

 we may be enabled the better to account for the surprising appearances of this 

 sort of meteor. 



