76 REPORT— 1870. 



Report on Observations of Luminous Meteors, 1869-70. By a Com- 

 mittee, consisting o/ James Glaisher, F.R.S., of the Royal Observa- 

 tory, Greenwich, Robert P. Greg, F.G.S., F.R.A.S., Alexander 

 S. HerscheLj F.R.A.S., and Charles Brooke, F.R.S., Secretary 

 to the Meteorological Society. 



In resuming the subject of their Eeport to the British Association for the 

 past year, the Committee have to regret the loss which they have sustained, . 

 since the preparation of the last Eeport, by the death, on the 1st of February 

 last, of a late member of this Committee, Prof. E. W. Brayley, to whose ap- 

 pointment by the British Association, in the year 1862, to assist in their 

 especial objects, the Committee have been indebted for constant and invalu- 

 able aid. 



In reviewing for the past year the progress of inquiry, and the results of 

 observations relating to meteors, continued attention towards the establish- 

 ment of star-shower dates, and their radiant-points, has rewarded Prof. 

 Schiaparelli with the determination of a considerable number of radiant- 

 points, indicating, on certain nights of the year, the earth's passage through 

 weU-defined streams of meteoric matter, of which the visual directions of 

 motion, and the concluded parabolic orbits round the sun, are described by 

 Prof. Schiaparelli in a recent memoir, as derived from the observations of 

 Mr. Zezioli at Bergamo, the Table of which is reproduced in the third Ap- 

 pendix of this Report. The meteor-currents thus already indicated will 

 shortly be supplemented or confirmed by the observations recorded at six- 

 teen of the principal Italian observatories*, of which Mr. F. Denza has 

 obtained the cooperation since April last. More than 2000 shooting-stars 

 having been observed during the months of April, May, and June 1870; and 

 the observations, as they continue to accumulate, being communicated for 

 this purpose to Prof. Schiaparelli, the number and distinctive characters of 

 other meteoric showers, besides those of the principal meteor dates in August 

 and November, will thus be ascertained, to which the attention of observers 

 has hitherto been only partially directed. 



The Committee are indebted to observers during the past year for the 

 contribution of a large number of observations of bright meteors, and of 

 shooting-stars, recorded during the two chief displays of November 1869 

 and August 1870, statements regarding the principal results of which are 

 contained in the following Appendices of this Report. 



In the catalogue t of the past year the observations of luminous meteors 

 include, as in previous years, aU those descriptions of large meteors which 

 have come to the knowledge of the Committee, with the exception of a large 

 number of foreign observations of the great fireball seen in the south-west 

 parts of Europe, on the 8th of September, 1869, of which it is expected that 

 a condensed account will be published before the preparation of another 

 Report, embodying aU the principal features of its course. An extraordinary 

 length of path and area of visibility has been assigned to this large meteor, 

 as will hereafter be described. 



* Alessandria, Aosta, Bergamo, Florence, Genoa, Girgenti (Sicily), Milan, Moncalieri 

 (Turin), Naples, Padua, Palermo (Sicily), Perugia, Piacenza, Thiene (Vicenza), Urbino, 

 Volpegliuo (Tortona). 



t The Catalogue, in accordance with a resolution of the General Committee, will not 

 be printed in future Keports ; it will be preserved for reference, and the Committee hope 

 to exhibit its principal results in a connected form. 



