Dec. 7, 1882 | 
NATURE 
141 
This, when worked out, gives the astonishing height of 212 
miles above the plaze YWB. Nor can I see how this result 
can be lessened in any way, for I have allowed an exaggerated 
parallax. Again, if the mysterious object was mof pursuing a 
path almost straight and parallel to the plane Y/I’#, as I have 
supposed, for the sake of a rough calculation, it must have tra- 
velled in a crooked one, for which there will be evidence forth- 
coming no doubt. Now Clifton is forty miles off the line B IV, 
and as Mr. A. M. Worthington carefully estimated the depression 
below the moon from centre to centre to be scarcely 34 moon 
diameters, or about 13 degrees, then at York, which is 160 
miles off line I” &, the depre-sion ought to he 1}° X 4 nearly 
= nearly 7° (but it was not so much). I and Mr. Worthington 
would see it beneath the moon nearly at the same time, he a 
little later than I. If the height should be anything near 212 
miles, then we ought to hear of it being seen vverhead in the 
north of Italy and Southern France, and it would be 200 miles 
or so in length. I hope that more accurate observations will be 
forthcoming to enable some scientific man to calculate the path 
of this strange apparition with some accuracy. Of course, if 
the thing laid straiglt along its path, it would appear to 
observers in England to be curved along its trajectory, as it did 
to me. I ought to say that at its apparent formation it was 
partly obscured by cloud in the S.E.E. (astronomical). 
Heworth, York, November 26 H. DENNIS TAYLOR 
P.S.—Might I be allowed a little more space just to state that 
my estimate of the meteoroid’s depression below the moon is 
considered far too much by my mother, who, happening to look 
out at the same time from a window, noticed it beneath the moon. 
She described it exactly as I had seen it, but did not notice its 
movement, as she only looked for a few seconds. If there had 
been two similar appearances at the same time, I do not see how 
I could have failed to notice them. Mr. S. H. Saxby estimates 
its height to have been 44 miles, but he will see that if that were 
so, then I ought to have seen it pass 17° below the moon. One 
cannot reasonably suppose that a different object of the same 
nature has been seen from the South of England, from the one 
that saw. Isee that Mr. A. Batson has observed it crossing 
the moon exactly from Hungerford, which place is in almost a 
direct line with York and the moon at the time of observation. 
Our observations would be simultaneous, and they give a height 
of 192 miles. The course of the meteoroid would be 22° south 
of west, almost as Mr. S. H. Saxby states. Being very anxious 
to obtain more exact data from observers in Yorkshire I sent a 
letter asking for information from any such to the York Herald, 
but it has not been inserted. Is there anything inherently im- 
probable in supposing this phenomenor to have been at a height 
of 190 miles, for have not rapid shooting stars now and then 
been seen incandescent at nearly that height, indicating the 
existence of an attenuated atmosphere.—H. D. T. 
December 3 
On Friday November 17 last, as I was walking along the 
north side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, at about 6 p.m, my attention 
was attracted to the moon, which was then shining brightly in a 
cloudless sky. I observed a broad band of light having some- 
what the appearance of a light cloud, only much brighter, moving 
across the face of the moon from east to west, which was the 
direction of its (the light’s) long diameter. It appeared to me to 
extend above and below the moon to about ‘he di-tance of the 
moon’s diameter, and to be in length about four times its own 
width ; when it had passed about half its own length from the 
moon, it seemed to disappear entirely. The time during which 
it was visible, I should think, was not more than hal’ a minute, 
probably not more than a quarter, and its movenient across the 
moon as rapid as that of a cloud when a very hivh wind is 
blowing. Epwarp PoLLock 
20, York Terrace, Regent’s Park, December 1 
A GREAT manifestation of aurora was visible here last 
night. It attracted my notice at Ir p.m. At (he time of obser- 
vation by me the aurora was very active, p) ojecting white 
streamers from a point in the south-west, and these, cros-ing the 
zenith, faded in the south-eastern sky. |here was a stiff, cold 
north-west wind blowing, and the night wes frosty. No pris- 
matic colours were noticeable, only the usual vreen auroral glow 
in the north-west sky, where it was crossed by the shooung 
streamers. A grand band of vapour rested on the wes'ern, 
north-western, and northern horizons. In the east and north-east 
was a soft blue sky. The display seemed to me to last through 
out the night, and to continue through the day ; as all day long, 
at intervals, streamers shot up from a bank of clouds in the 
north-west horizon, At 5.30 p.m. this evening there was a 
powerful auroral glare in the west and north-west. After that 
time a cloud canopy formed and hid thesky. The weather here 
in the afternoon of Monday was stormy, with a rising barometer 
and a falling thermometer, wind nearly a gale, hail, rain, and 
snow falling at intervals, >= 
Worcester, November 28 
In Nature, vol. xxvii. p. 548-9, and 571, will be found 
acco ints of the aurora borealis, as seen by your correspondents 
on Monday evening, October 2 last. I wish to draw attention 
to the fact that a grand Aurora Australis of magnificent appear- 
ance was visible in Australia on Monday evening, also on 
October 2, but of course was seen by our Antipodean friends 
about twelve hours before the one seen at this eid of the globe. 
The reports that I have of the Aurora Australis are from 
Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Sandhurst, Ballarat, &c. So 
brilliant was it that the firemen turned out, imagining that there 
was some enormous conflagration in their neighbourhood. This 
concurrence opens up the question, was there any connection 
between these two displays ? J. FRANCIS COLE 
Westfield, Sutton, Surrey, November 28 
By kindness of Astronomer Royal, Greenwich, I am able to 
add the exact position of moon at Ramsbury, November 17, 
inst., at 6h. 2m, :— 
R.A. = 2th, 12m. 56s. 
NSP SDS) =) 100. 3507... 
At this time the hour angle of the moon was 35m, 49s., or 
8° 57’ 15” west of the meridian. 
The above is the most accurate observation possible for cal- 
culating the real position with regard to the earth. 
Ramsbury, Wilts ALFRED BATSON 
I bo not know whether you will publish more auroral 
accounts, but if you do, the inclosed seems very interesting. The 
phenomena, as seen in the north, differed much from ov views 
of them. J. RanD CAPRON 
Guildown, December 4 
“ A singular pinkish light appeared in the western sky between 
5 and6 p.m. At the same time I noticed a light of a peculiar 
yellowish white rising up from the eastern horizon. The genera'l 
appearance was that of two conical-shaped lights about 40° to 
50° wide at base, east and west horizon, their apexes meeting at 
or about the zenith, z. The whole of the northern sky was more 
or less illuminated, but much .more marked in the transverse 
streaks extending east and west, or nearly so in the former case, 
deepening to a rich crimson pink towards the western horizon, 
and to the eastern horizon a bright yellowish white. Its southern 
termination was a well-defined sharp outline forming an are 
about 30° to 40° from the south horizon, inside which the sky 
appeared almost black by contrast, the new moon lending addi- 
tional interest to this peculiar atmospheric display, 
“ P. R, CLAPHAM 
* Austwick Hall, Clapham, Lancaster, December 1” 
WiItH reference to J. E. Clark’s remarks on p. 85, I would 
remind your readers that Sophus Tromholt, of Bergen, has 
organised a system of simultaneous observations on auroras, and 
that he will -upply forms for recording them to any observer 
who will ap)ly for them. I am not aware whether he has 
yet arrived at any definite results as regards the height of 
auroras ; nor do I know whether he is making this specially a 
subject for inves igation ; nor whether he has enlisted the ser- 
vices of many observers in Britain. Surely J. . C. is in error 
in saying that a height of roo miles is far greater than is now 
usually supposed. In works on auroras, far greater heights are 
given, and I am not aware that these have ever been disproved. 
It is obvious that the curious spindle-shaped beam seen on the 
17th must have been at an enormous height. 
Sunderland, December 4 THos. WM. BACKHOUSE 
The past week has been one of remarkable electrical disturb- 
ances. Auroras were visible Tuesday evening, November 14, 
all Friday nizht, Saturday evening, Sunday night, Monday 
morning, and Monday evening. It was cloudy in this vicinity 
between the 15th and 16th, and if there were aurora: they were 
not visible. he aurora of Friday evening, following an intense 
magnetic storm, was remarkably brilliant, and lasted all night. 
