NATURE 



\_Feb. 8, 1872 



At this time I could see that the Pleiades were partly covered, 

 although not hidden, by a part of this streamer. At 6.35 it 

 faded away. At 6.40 light clouds began to rise in the W. and 

 S.W., and as I recognised this phenomenon as auroral, having 

 seen similar clouds on other occasions of auroral displays, I care- 

 fully watclied them, and saw at 6.50, in the S.W. , a crimson- 

 coloured patch, undefined in shape, originating from the light 

 clouds. At 6.55 there shot up from the S. beautiful red, crrni- 

 son, and blue streamers, which converged in the zenith. At 6. 58 

 other bands of crimson and blue arose due S., and joined the 

 others in the zenith. At 7.0 I was quite astonislied to see the 

 aurora appear in the S.S.E., by which lime the previous bril- 

 liant display in the S. had dimmed, and the whole of them formed 

 a southern cancpy. During this southern display, the northern 

 parts were quite dark, with heavy looking clouds ; but at 7.5 the 

 clouds slightly broke up, and I saw a faint redness in the N.E., 

 about 45^ above the horizon. By this time the southern streamers 

 and patches began to spread and assume a mottled appearance, 

 which reached by 7. 10 theN.W. At 7.15 the N. W. and E. 

 were quite dark and cloudy, and there remained only slight 

 traces of the aurora in the S.W. high up in the heavens, and by 

 8.35 it had entirely disappeared. JOHN Jeremiah 



Park, Tottenham, Feb. 4 



Doubtless many of your readers witnessed the magnificent 

 aurora which occurred on Sunday, P"ebruary 4. Ifany one else 

 has noted the position of the radiant point, as seen from this 

 station, the following observations, made somewhat roughly, 

 from this place (lat. 53^ 17' 8" N., long. 6^ 10' 22" W., nearly) 

 may be of use in determinmg approximately the height of that 

 point above the earth. 



At 7.15 (Greenwich time) its zenith distance was 23°; its 

 bearing in azimuth 4" E. of S. At 7.30 its zenith distance was 

 the same ; its azimuth 15° E. of S. At 9.10 its zenith distance 

 was 13° ; its azimuth 1° W. of S. M. H. Close 



Newton Park, Blackrock, Dublin, Feb. 5 



Last evening (Sunday, Feb. 4) there was a brilliant display 

 of aurora visible in North Devon with some unusual features. 

 At 6 o'clock the sky was clear, except a cloud of deep rose 

 aurora over Orion, and another detached portion toward the 

 west. This soon developed into a cloudy arch of the same 

 colour stretching from east to west ; then, a little south of the 

 zenith between the Pleiades and Aldebaran, this arch culminated 

 to an obtuse point of white cloud, something like a broad gothic 

 arch. The northern half of the heavens was quite clear, but a 

 series of radiations towards the south, and spreaJmg east and 

 west, issued from this point. For some time it seemed doubtful 

 whether it was aurora, or a peculiar appearance of the clouds 

 caused by high air currents, and a refraction of light from the 

 sun's rays in ihe higher regions of the atmosphere. At one time 

 there was some appearance of spiral radiations, or drift of cloud 

 from this point near the zenith, with a distinct but irregular gap 

 of clear sky, somewhat similar to the Coalhole in tlie galaxy 

 near the .Southern Cross ; but this did not last long, alttiough 

 the general appearance was continued for more tlian half an hour, 

 with varying play of light, over a space of about 140° of the 

 southern heavens, with pretty well-defined eastern and western 

 boundaries of deep rose colour, culminating in the white focus 

 near the Pleiades, which appeared the centre of action. The 

 rose colour was chiefly confined to the eastern and western boun- 

 daries, with intermitting siarts of whitish radiation toward the 

 south. Occasionally well-defined streaks of a lighter tint crossed 

 the western portion of the rosy cloud, which appeared to originate 

 from the light of the sun, now, of course, far below the horizon. 

 At length the eastern portion became less brilliant, but still Orion 

 was enveloped in a steady rosy haze, although it gradually be- 

 came fainter, until, a little before 7 o'clock, the rosy colour 

 below Orion toward the eastern horizon became as brilliant as 

 ever, and soon a straight broad ray of rose colour started up from 

 the horizon. This was not curved or arched, like the whiter 

 radiations which seemed to originate from near the zenith ; nor 

 was it, like them, intermittent and wavy ; but had the appearance 

 of a broad beam of rosy light originating below the horizon, and 

 darting straight upward in a diagonal direction, proceeding over 

 Castor and Pollux and Jupiter. Then the north side of this 

 became of a pecuhar light bluish green ; if I may be allowed to 

 coin a word, it was of a moonshiny colour. If the moon had been 

 a few days yotmger, I should have thought it originated from the 



moon. This very peculiar and distinct broad beam or bar of light 

 almost developed prismatic colours from its southern rosy edge^to 

 its northern bluish-green well defined border. There was also a 

 somewhat indistinct tendency to the same prismatic appearance, 

 spreading some little distance over the heavens on the. south side 

 of this beam near the zenith. The northern segment of the sky 

 from Castor and Pollux to about direct west was still perfectly 

 clear, both from cloud and aurora, right down to the horizon ; 

 there was a bank of cloud along the southern horizon. About 

 7 o'clock there was an appearance of rosy tint to the north of 

 the peculiar straight bank spoken of, and this reached as far as 

 the pointers in the Great Bear. About the same time there was 

 a peculiar development of white cloud from the zenith toward 

 the north-west, strealced and fringed with well defined radiations, 

 and this gradually increased until the northern portion of the 

 heavens, which had hitherto been quite clear, was covered to 

 within 30" of the horizon, the border of this cloud being very 

 distinctly and deeply serrated with fan-like shapes radiating from 

 near the zenith. The phenomena I have described occupied 

 more than an hour, and my attention was now drawn from it 

 until after 8 o'clock, when the whole heavens were cloudy, but 

 behind and between the clouds the rosy tint was still visible as 

 an irregular arch stretching from north to west. As the clouds 

 broke off the whitish wavy radiation could be occasionally seen 

 still issuing from near the zenith, and across the western part of 

 the rosy arch were occasionally seen the straight diagonal bars of 

 a brighter shade, apparently caused by the light of the sun, but 

 the clouds obscured most of the phenomena. At a last look 

 near 9 o'clock the clouds had somewhat cleared, and there were 

 two brilliant arches, more lilvc the regular aurora from the north- 

 west horizon towards the zenith, at right angles to the more 

 cloudy arch, which had been visible for some time stretching from 

 the north to the west. W. Symon.s 



Barnstaple, Feb. 5 



Last evening (Sunday, February 4) the sky presented a 

 weird and unusual aspect which at once struck the eye. A lurid 

 tinge upon the clouds which hung around suggested tlie reflection 

 of a distant fire, while scattered among these torn and broken 

 masses of vapour having a white and phosphorescent appear- 

 ance, and quickly altering and changing their forms, reminded me 

 of a similar appearance preceding the great aurora of October 

 1870. Shortly some of these shining white clouds or vapours 

 partly arranged themselves in columns from east to west, and 

 at the same time appeared the characteristic patches of rose- 

 coloured light which are seen in an auroral display. 



About 8 o'clock the clouds had to a certain extent broken 

 away, and the auiora shone out from behind heavy banks of 

 cluuds which rested on the western horizon, the north-eastern 

 horizon being free from cloud and shining brightly with red light. 

 And now, at about 8. 15, was presented a most be.-iuliful pheno- 

 menon. While looking upwards I saw a stellar-shaped mass of 

 white light form in the clear blue sky immediately above my head, 

 not by small clouds collecting, but apparently forming itself in 

 the same way as a cloud forms by condensation in a clear sky on 

 a mountain top, or a crystal shoots out in a transparent liquid, 

 leaving, as I fancied, an almost traceable nucleus or centre with 

 spear-like rays projecting from it ; and from this in a few seconds 

 shot forth diverging streamers of golden light, which descending 

 met and mingled with the rosy patches of the aurora hanging 

 about the horizon. The spaces of sky between the streamers 

 were of a deep purple (the effect of contrast), and the display, 

 though lasting a few minutes only, was equal if not excelling in 

 beauty, though not in brilliancy, the grand display in 1S70, be- 

 fore alluded to, in which latter case, however, the converging rays 

 met in a ring or disc of white light of considerable size. 



What struck me particularly was the aurora developing itself 

 as from a centre in the clear sky, and the diverging streamers 

 apparently shooting downwards, whereas in the ordinary way the 

 streamers are seen to shoot up from the horizon and converge 

 overhead. The effect may have been an illusion, but if so it was 

 a very remarkable one. Examined with one of Mr. Browning's 

 direct seven-prism spectroscopes, I saw the principal bright line 

 in the green everywhere (the other lines were not visible), and 

 noticed the peculiar flickering in that line which I noticed in 

 1870, and which has also I think been remarked by Sir John 

 Herschel. The general aurora lasted for some time till lost in 

 a clouded sky, and in fact rain was descending at one time while 

 the aurora was quite bright. Strong wind prevailed during the 



