A CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 59 



regarding the number and distribution of tbese bodies in space. The average 

 height of the centres of their visible tracks is sixty miles above the earth. 

 Their number in the atmosphere daily is seven and a half millions, and, if 

 not intercepted in their flight, there would be found in the space occupied by 

 the earth at any instant in its orbit, 13,000 of such bodies pursuing different 

 orbits. Of shooting-stars visible in telescopes, Mr. Newton calculates that 

 the number is at least fifty times as great as the number of those visible to 

 the naked eye. Indeed there appears to be no limit to their minuteness or 

 to their numbers. Tbeir velocity is greater than the velocity of the earth in 

 its orbit, ard Mr. Newton supposes that they are grouped together according 

 to some law, probacy that of rings encompassing the sun, resembling in their 

 inclinations and dimensions the orbits of the comets. Mr. Newton, in con- 

 clusion, supposes that these bodies, which he terms Meteoroids, are not frag- 

 ments of a former world, but rather materials from which new worlds are 

 forming ; the latter view is taken by Mr. Brayley. 



Meteoroids and meteoritic masses constitute the two classes of bodies 

 which have to be considered in Meteoric Astronomy. It is, however, 

 reasonable to suppose that the same forces which in the phase of greatest 

 concentration of the solar system give rise to " meteoritic masses," might in 

 a phase of vastly greater antiquity, and of greater extension of the solar orb, 

 have given rise in a similar manner to the rings of " meteoroids." Continued 

 observations directed to the phenomena of shooting-stars will end by remov- 

 ing doubt from this province of astronomy, and throw new light on certain 

 difficult questions in cosmical philosophy — such, for example, as the existence 

 of organic matter (a kind of peat or humus) in the meteorites of Orgueil. 



At the request of the Committee, the following Report for the past year has 

 been drawn up by Alexander S. Herschel : — 



The Committee have the satisfaction to present in this Report several 

 descriptions of large meteors ; of which the details are given in the Cata- 

 logue, and have led in some instances to determining their real heights and 

 velocities. In investigating the path of the detonating meteor of the 30th 

 of April last (Monthly Notices, R.A.S., 1805, June 9), although resting on 

 two observations only, a high degree of accuracy was attainable. The Com- 

 mittee take this opportunity of congratulating Members and other, observers 

 on the increasing precision of their observations, by which this satisfactory 

 result could be obtained (Appendix I. 6). 



A few observations of old date, not previously recorded, are entered in the 

 Catalogue, together with extracts from authentic foreign sources. Obser- 

 vations of several star-showers are included, of which the results are col- 

 lected in Appendix II. Recent additions of meteorites to museums, and 

 remarkable meteors, are desciibed in the third and fourth appendices of the 

 Catalogue. A number of contributions to literature in meteoric astronomy 

 are either noticed or given in full in Appendix V. 



Sky-maps prepared especially for observations of shooting-stars, and par- 

 ticularly of their radiant-points, have been placed for constant use in the 

 hands of observers. Dr. Heis, of Miiuster, warmly seconding the appeal of 

 the Committee, has lithographed copies of these charts, by which the meteors 

 observed in the same latitude* at Miinster are conveniently compared with 

 those observed at Greenwich. To his courteous zeal and devoted labours, the 

 Committee are indebted for the heights of shooting-stars observed at Miinster 

 in July and August 1864 and 1865, contained in Appendix YI. 



* The latitude of Greenwich Observatory is 51° 28' 38" : that of Miinster Observatory 

 is 51° 58' 10". The difference is therefore 29' 32", or not quite half a degree — about the 

 average error unavoidably committed in copying, and producing a requisite quantity of 

 lithographic impressions of the maps. 



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