A CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUAIINOUS METEORS. 397 



tioned (which was made known by its reflected light alone) may have ap- 

 proached the maximum brilliancy of Venus." 



The jmiteor which appeared over Scotland at 2'» 41'" a.m., as seen by obser- 

 vers watching the meteors from the top of Carlton Hill, threw their shadows 

 on the ground. It was the reflected light, also, which first drew Mr. GiU's 

 attention to it at Aberdeen. 



A writer in the ' Newcastle Chronicle ' states that " sometimes, when two 

 or three large meteors would fall straight down in a parallel course leaving 

 long streams of light behind them, a greenish glare was cast around." 



The scale of brightness of eighty-three considerable meteors, whose appa- 

 rent paths were recorded at the Glasgow Observatory by Mr. Alex. S. 

 Herschel, assisted by Mr. A. Macgregor for the pui-pose of determining the 

 radiant-point, was as follows : — 



As bright as Jupiter, or brighter . . 2 meteors = 3 per cent. 



„ Sirius 14 „ =17 „ 



„ Ist-mag. star 39 „ =48 „ 



„ 2nd-mag. star 2G „ =32 „ 



The report of Mr. Backhouse at Sunderland contains a similar estimate of 

 their brightness. 



" About l** SO"" A.M. I tried to ascertain the proportion of meteors of dif- 

 ferent magnitudes, with the result below : — 



Brighter than Ist-mag, star. 



29 100 



Mr. Baxendell, at Manchester, gives the following enumeration : — 

 Out of every 100 meteors, 10 were above the 1st mag. ; the brightest 

 of these were two or three times brighter than Sirius : 



15 were between 1st and 2nd mag. 

 25 „ 2nd „ 3rd „ 



30 „ 3rd „ 4th „ 



15 „ 4th „ 5th „ 



5 were below the 5th mag. 



100~ 



Mr. S. H. Miller reports at Wisbech, Cambridegshire : — " With very few ex- 

 ceptions, those I registered were equal to stars of the 1st or 2nd magnitude, 

 but some were as bright as Sirius." 



Colours of the Meteors. 



Mr. Birmingham, at Tuam, describes the meteors as " having the nuclei 

 geneiaUy red or deep orange, while the tails were greenish blue." 



Mr. V. Fasel, at Dr. Wrigley's Observatory at Clapham, describes the nuclei 

 as " yellow, orange, and sometimes red, while the luminous paths were of 

 an emerald green, or bluish hue, though in some cases red." 



Mr. Hugh Weightman, at Oundle (Notts), reports that " the colour of the 

 nuclei, from being a mixture of red, green, purple, and yellow, became 



