OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 85 



at lO*" 23"' 30' P.M. ou the evening of the 12th, and which left a flue streak, 

 moved from a different radiant-point, for about 1| second, in a course 

 of 10° between /3 and ?j Pegasi, from the direction of d Piscium. At 

 10'' 46™ and ll"" 7"" p.m., on the same evening, meteors of greenish colour 

 were seen, leaving long and bright streaks ; that of the first was visible for 

 fourteen seconds ; and the meteor (as will shortly be described) was also seen 

 at Hawkhurst. The last brilliant meteor of the shower was visible at 

 lO*" 35'" P.M. on the 13th, of greenish colour, like the last two, and leaving 

 an exceedingly bright streak, which was visible for six seconds after the 

 meteor had disappeared. It passed from the direction of t] Persei, about 1° 

 below Polaris and /3 XJrsce Minoris. At about the same time, or shortly 

 before 11 o'clock on the evening of the 13th, a brilliant meteor appears to 

 have been seen at Regent's Park, London, among other meteors of the 

 shower which there still continued to be plentiful. A notable example 

 of the meteors occasionally appearing in groups occurred at lO** 49"' p.m. 

 on the 10th, when three meteors, about as bright as second-magnitude 

 stars, appeared within an interval of about ten seconds, and all passed in a 

 nearly identical path in continuation of a line joining y Andromedse and 

 a Triangulfe. Two meteors, brighter than first-magnitude stars, also ap- 

 peared within four seconds of each other, moving in parallel and closely 

 neighbouring courses, inclined about 45° towards the horizon, in the con- 

 stellation Capricornus, at 11'' 4"' 20' p.m. on the 10th. This brilliant pair 

 was simultaneously observed at Hawkhurst, each meteor about the bright- 

 ness of Sirius, leaving a long, bright, and slender streak. The first com- 

 mencing about 2° above /3 Aqiiarii, moved on a course exactly parallel to 

 that of the second, which passed, with the same steady speed as the first, 

 from half a degree below ^ Aquarii to half a degree below h Capricorni. 

 Mr. Wood, at Birmingham, also noted the appearance, at the same minute, 

 and within about two seconds of each other, of this ijerfectly matched and 

 closely adjacent pair. Each meteor was about as bright as Sirius, of orange 

 colour, lasted one second, and left a reddish streak upon its course. The path 

 of the first, as seen at Birmingham, was from 6 Aquarii to S Capricorni ; and 

 that of the second was parallel and closely adjoining to it from a point in 

 R. A. 325°, S. Decl. 22°, to R. A. 321°, S. Decl. 26°. Closely as all these de- 

 scriptions of them correspond together, the unfavourable position of their 

 apparent paths near the horizon prevents the real heights and the distances 

 of the component meteors of the pair from each other and from the 

 observers fi-om being calculated with the accuracy and certainty that would 

 otherwise have been attainable from such excellent observations. 



Almost all the meteors observed at Greenwich during the display left 

 more or less brilliant and enduring streaks. With the exception of one 

 reddish, four white, eight pale green or greenish, and twenty-six yellowish 

 meteors (in all about 8 per cent.), all the meteors mapped at Greenwich were 

 uniformly of a bluish or bluish-white colour. 



As seen on the nights of the 10th and 11th in Loudon, the following is 

 Mr. Crumplen's description of the August meteors : — " The sky was quite 

 clear, but there was an auroral glare in the north, and a white streamer 

 flickering for a few minutes on the evening of the 10th*. Eighty-two 



* The auroral streamer was also seen by Mr. W. H. Jackson at Tooting near 

 London, who writes : — " On the 10th there was a tolerably distinct aurora borealis, one 

 streamer of which extended from the north to a spot apparently a considerable distance 

 beyond Arcturus." At York a distinct auroral arch was seen by Mr. J. E. Clark on the 

 €th, lasting from after twilight, when it first appeared, until 11'' 30", when it was 

 obscured by the rising moon. A similar faint appearance was observed by Professor 

 Herschel, at Glasgow, on the evening of the 7tb. 



