A CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 17 



detonating meteor which appeared over the Dover Straits on the forenoon of 

 the 20th of Juno 1S6G, with instrumental measui'emcuts of its ajiparcnt path 

 by Mr. Francis Galton, will he found in this Appendix. 



The object of the Committee in providing star-charts to observers of the 

 meteoric shower of jS^ovember last, was attained ; and accurate observations 

 of luminous meteors under that date are presented in the Catalogue of the 

 lleport. The radiant-point of the meteoric shower, during the period of its 

 greatest activity, was situated within two degrees of the place which it oc- 

 cupied in the interval of the greatest meteoric activity of the same shower in 

 the year 1833 — a fact in itself demonstrative of the fixed uranographical 

 character of the phenomenon (Appendix IV. 2). 



The height of the November meteors is shown in this Eei)ort to be the 

 same as that of ordinary shooting-stars, or about sixty miles above the sur- 

 face of the earth ; Avhilst with regard to their speed, they are three times 

 swifter than those meteors which at the same time arrive from the direction 

 of the constellation Taurus. 



Bearing in mind the strong probability that exists of the occurrence in the 

 present year of a more extraordinary meteoric shower, on the morning of the 

 ]3th or on the morning of the 14th of November, than any that has yet been 

 observed at the English observatories, the Committee during the past year 

 judged it unadvisable to incur avoidable expense, or to exceed the means at 

 their command by lithographing the charts of general radiant-points of shoot- 

 ing-stars, exhibited two years ago at Bath, to the Meeting of the Ihitish 

 Association, and these they now suggest might be printed, and distributed 

 with advantage. 



The occasion of the return of the great November shower being one of very 

 rare occurrence, the Committee, Avith the view of profiting by the opportunity 

 thus afforded of observing the spectra of luminous meteors, have this year pro- 

 vided themseves with spectroscopes, and have succeeded in aualj'zing the hght 

 of shooting-stars by means of their prismatic spectra. Two spectroscopes 

 were directed to be prepared by Mr. Browning, and were first used on the 

 lUth of August last, and seventeen spectra were observed, A description of 

 the observations, together with the discovery of the yellow sodium-line as the 

 chief feature of tlie greater number of the train -spectra, will be found in the 

 last Appendix of tlic lieport. 



1SG6. 



