A CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 399 



prevailing colour [of the nuclei] to be orange, with a long sea-green train. 

 Others were of a deep red, like balls of fire, without any train at all." 



Mr. D. Gill, at Aberdeen, fiirther noticed that the trains, " which at first 

 were of a bluish or yellow colour, changed into a beautiful emerald-green." 



At Clifton, Mr. G. F. Eurder particularizes the colour of the trains as 

 being " of a most delicate greenish hue. This greenish tint was very con- 

 stant. The meteors themselves, on the contrary, had often a ruddy glow ; 

 and in cases when the path was very much foreshortened to the eye, and both 

 trains and meteor coidd therefore be seen in opposition, the contrast between 

 the colours of the two was very remarkable." (The Times, Nov. 15.) 



At Chesham, Bucks, according to the report of Mr. C. Grover, " Most of 

 the meteors exhibited a decidedly red head, with a bluish-green train. I 

 noted that their altitude had a great influence on their colour, those on the 

 horizon being much more tinted than those m the zenith, where some of the 

 brightest looked nearly white, -with, blue trains. Their position, with regard 

 to the radiant-point, also greatly influenced their colour. Those whose paths 

 were considerably foreshortened, in and about Leo, showing brilliant colours, 

 the red head and greenish train being strongly contrasted, while those with 

 long trains in the west were comparatively pale in colours." 



Spectroscopic Ohservafio)is. 



At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Mr. Carpenter of the Astronomical 

 Department of the Observatory, and Mr. Nash of the Meteorological Depart- 

 ment, had spectroscopes, but neither detected any luminous or dark lines in 

 the spectra of any of the meteors, or of their trains ; not even the sodium 

 line found by Mr. Herschel in some of the Augiist meteors. 



The rapid cessation of the shower, and the desirability of filling up a chart 

 of meteor-tracks for determining the radiant-point during the brief time that 

 it lasted in what was at first considered to be the earliest part of its display, 

 was the reason why no extensive observations -with the meteor- spectroscope 

 were made at Glasgow by Mr. Herschel and Mr. A. Macgregor. The fol- 

 lowing observations were recorded (Intellectual Observer, vol. x. p. 461) : — 



" At 12'' 41" a dazzling object, two or three times as bright as Venus, 

 passed in a second from midway between the ' pointers ' to the nose of the 

 Lesser Bear, leaving a bright streak, divided, like the last, into two parts ; 

 but the first part in this case remained visible the longest. The end-half 

 afforded a decided spectrum, appearing as a single bright band in the 

 spectroscope no broader than if looked at through an ordinary piece of 

 glass 



" The number of streaks now visible in the sky gave another opportunity 

 for using the spectroscope. 



" 18G6, Nov. 14th, 12'' 54"^ a.m.— Equal to Sii'ius; from 3Canis Minoris 

 to /3 Eridani. Left a streak for five seconds. The streak appeared as an 

 extremely fine line in the spectroscope *. 



" A more powerful spectroscope was now employed, consisting of the cen- 

 tral portion only of a Herschel-Browning spectroscope, containing two 

 prisms, and producing therefore twice the dispersion of a single prism. My 

 assistant, Mr. Macgregor, looking at the streaks with the unassisted eye, 

 whilst I watched the same streaks in the spectroscope, we each called out 

 ' gone ' when the streaks ajipeared to us to vanish. 



* Not the least doubt could be entertained that the light of the streaks in this, and the 

 accompanying instances, was homogeneous ; or, at least, quite different in appearance in 

 the prisms i'rom the light of a fixed star. — A. S. H. 



