A CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 401 



the green aud red, suddenly appear and disappear. It was not straight across 



the spectrum, but deflected, or jagged, thus I "^ | 



" The spectrum of the trains was extremely feeble. I could hardly say 

 that there was any colour." 



Characteristic Appearances. 



At Greenwich, on one or two occasions during the display, meteors were 

 observed to have a double out-burst, the principal meteors passing on at the 

 head of the stream of light, the secondary nucleus remaining in the luminous 

 track. The accompanying is a sketch of one of these remarkable objects, 

 supplied by Mr. Dunkin, of the Royal Observatory, in a drawing illustrating 

 the general appearance of the shower. (Leisure Hour, Jan. 5th, 1SG7.) 



A triple meteor, each part being as bright as Yenus, is described by Mr. 

 G. Forbes as having been seen by him at St. Andrews (Philosophical Maga- 

 zine, S. 4. vol. xxsiii. p. 83) at 12'' 41" a.m., which left a streak visible 

 for eight minutes. At Glasgow attention was drawn to the meteor by the 

 bright light in the first half of its course. At this part a streak remained 

 visible for nine minutes, and collected itself into an oval form, while the 

 portion of the streak in the last half of the meteor's course, in which a good 

 view of the meteor was obtained at Glasgow, remained straight, and faded 

 away in about 30 seconds. The appearance of the meteor in the latter por- 

 tion of its path, at Glasgow, was that of a single pear-shaped nucleus about 

 as bright as Yenus, drawing a bright train of light, like that left by other 

 bright meteors of the shower. 



A remarkable double meteor, equally cui-ious, was observed by M. J. J. 

 Silbermann of the College de France, at Paris, during the progress of the 

 shower. This meteor passed slowly from Leo to the square of Ursa Major, 

 and onwards towards the west horizon, leaving no train. It consisted of two 

 brilliant round white nuclei, each about as bright as Jupiter, and 15' apart, 

 which oscillated to and fro, and before and behind each other, exactly as if 

 performing perfect revolutions in a cii'cle round each other, in a plane per- 

 pendicular to the visual line, — one revolution in ever)^ second of time. The 

 whole diu'ation was 8 or 10 seconds, and both meteors disajopeared too-ether 

 (Le Moniteur, Nov. 20th, 18G7.) 



At Hawliliurst. — " At 12'* 6™ a.m., two pear-shaped meteors, both brighter 

 than Yenus, changing from yellow into orange, pursued one another in 

 almost identically the same course, at an apparent distance of about thi-ee 

 moon's diameters between them, both expanding together, and both leavino- 

 trains. 



" Another red meteor, about the same time, which grew to be as bright 

 and round as Sii'ius, was distinctly observed by all to make two darts or shots 

 in its flight. 



"At 12" 39"' 30' A.jr., two fine meteors, with well-defined disks and elon- 



1867. Oe 



