400 REPORT — 1867. 



" IS** 56™ A.M. — Equal to a fii'st-magnitude star. Left a greenish-blue 

 streak from three to four seconds. We differed in our vanishing moments 

 two-tenths of a scond. 



" 12'' 57™ A.M. — Equal to a first-magnitude star. Left a greenish-blue 

 streak for from tliree to four seconds. We differed iu our vanishing moments 

 one-tenth of a second. 



" l"! 0™ A.M. — Equal to Sirius. Left a greenish-blue streak for four 

 seconds. We spoke together. 



" The result shows that some of the streaks were composed of monochro- 

 matic light, altogether uudimmed by its passage through the prisms." 



Mr. Browning obsei-ved the spectra of several meteors in the meteor- 

 Spectroscope, from the observatory of Mr. Barnes at Upper HoUoway, Lon- 

 don, between 9^ 30™ p.m., and 4'' a.m. on the morning of the 14th of No- 

 vember 1S66. 



The spectra which he obtained were of four kinds : — 



" 1. Continuous spectra of the nuclei, in which the whole of the colours 

 of the solar spectrum were visible, except violet. In even the most uniform 

 of these, I am inclined to think that the yellow was strongly predominant*. 



<' 2. Those which gave a bright orange-yellow line of light, or only a faint 

 continuous spectrum in addition to this yellow line f. 



" 3. Spectra consisting, apparently, of only a single line of green light, 

 of nearly the same colour as that shown by thallium, 



" Of this kind I only obtained the spectra of two meteors. In one of these 

 I thought that I detected, in addition, a very faint continuous spectrum, 

 nearly obscured bj' the brilliancy of the green line. 



" 4. The spectra of the trains. 



" The light from green trains appeared continuous in the prisms. 



" Those which were of a blue colour appeared as a [(?)faint] line of laven- 

 der colour, with a stUl fainter trace of a continuous spectrum. In some 

 few instances [/. e.(?) of the lavender line] no continuous spectrum could 

 be detected." 



Mr. Greg obtained the following observations with the meteor-spectroscope 

 at Manchester. 



" The spectra of the nuclei of the three large ones which I observed, much 

 resembled in size and gorgeous effect that of the crescent moon, which I 

 looked at in the meteor-spectroscope on the following evening. As I did not 

 see the meteors with direct vision, I cannot say how large they appeared 

 naturally. 



" Their spectra all consisted of crimson, green, and blue. The spectra of 

 two of them were a little less well marked at the outer edges, and between 

 the colours, than the spectrum of the third, in which the demarcation between 

 the red, green, and blue, as well as the definition at the outer edges of the 

 spectrum, was perfect. In one of them there seemed to be pretty niimerous 

 darker lines across the spectrum in a vertical du'ection ; and at the instant of 

 disappearance I saw, or thought that I saw, an orange line, or band between 



* Wlien a star of small magnitude is looked at through the meteor-spectroscope, its 

 light is either completely washed out, and invisible, or a line of faint and apparently 

 colourless light marks its pLice. The length of this line of light, up to the cases of tliose 

 stars in which it can no longer be discerned, continues to be about half a degree. There 

 exists no tendency in the yellow rays of the stellar spectra to remain outstanding, when 

 fixed stars of very feeble light are examined in the meteor-spectroscope. — A. S. H. 



t Similar spectra of the nuclei of meteors to these are described in the last Eeport 

 for 1866, p. 144. 



