A FALLING STAR. 21 r 



at Bristol will not often find the angle of elevation to be 

 half a right angle. The calculation therefore will usually 

 be not quite so simple as in the case we have supposed, 

 but it presents no real difficulty. 



In addition to this somewhat imaginary illustration 1 

 shall mention an actual instance, and I naturally take 

 a recent meteor that suits my purpose. It is one which 

 has been fully described by the well-known astronomer, 

 Mr. W. F. Denning, who was himself one of the obser- 

 vers, and who afterwards calculated the position of the 

 meteor's track. From his account I gather the following 

 particulars. 



A careful observer of these bodies, who resides at Leeds, 

 Mr. D. Booth, was keeping watch on the evening of 

 January 2nd, 1888, when at lOh. 58m. P.M. a splendid 

 meteor, which appeared to him to be as bright as Jupiter, 

 travelled across the heavens, through the constellation 

 Aries, towards the south. On the same evening Mr. Den- 

 ning, who was on the look out at Bristol, saw the same 

 bright meteor in the northern part of the sky, in the con- 

 stellation Draco. That the object seen at Leeds and the 

 object seen at Bristol were the same is obvious from the 

 fact that the times noted by the two observers were iden- 

 tical. Nor was there any other bright meteor recorded 

 at either place which would admit of the possibility of 

 confusion. No doubt the parts of the sky in which each 

 observer located the meteor were utterly different. From 

 Leeds it appeared high up in the south-western quarter of 

 the heavens, from Bristol it was seen in the north, almost 

 under the Pole. But the different situations do not imply 

 that there were two distinct objects; they are merely 



