OBSERVATIONS OP LUMINOUS METEORS. 119 



Report on Observations of Luminous Meteors during the year 1875-76, 

 bi/ a Committee, consisting 0/ James Glaisher, F.R.S., R. P. Gkkg, 

 F.G.S., F.R.A.S., C. BiiooKE, F.R.S., Prof. G. Fokises, F.K.S.E., 

 Walter Flight, D.Sc, F.G.S., and Prof. A, S, Hebschel, 

 M.A., F.R.A.S, 



[Plate IV.] 



The principal subjects of discussion in the present Eeport are, as they have 

 been in former years, the descriptions of meteors and meteor-showers of 

 whicli the Committee has received information during the interval of a year 

 ■which has elapsed since the presentation of the last Report. 



Of such materials a large supply has as usual been contributed to, or has 

 been sought for by, the Committee. Most of the appearances described are 

 fireballs of an occasional character, some of which have given rise to a good 

 deal of remark and scientific discussion in the public journals of the day, 

 both from the exceptional character of brightness and from the quick re- 

 petitions of their occurrence. 



Large fireballs were seen on the 3rd, 7th, and 14th of September last, 

 which were observed over such a considerable extent of country as to allow 

 of their real heights and paths to be calculated with a somewhat unusual 

 degree of accuracy. The paths of these meteors were calculated by Captain 

 G. L. Tupman, of the Eoyal Observatory, Greenwich ; aud very satisfactory 

 conclusions were arrived at as to the proljable meteor-showers or systems to 

 which these large fireballs, two of which were detonating, appear pretty 

 certainly to have belonged. 



Other instances have occurred where bright fireballs have been seen at 

 several points in England sufficiently far apart, and have been observed with 

 sufficient accuracy to lead to definite although not generally more than very 

 rough determinations of their actual heights, velocities, and directions. One 

 of the largest of these bolides was seen in bright sunshine on the 22nd of 

 December, 1875 ; another of great brilliancy was noticed on the evening of 

 July 25th, 1876 : of these meteors, as only a few well-recorded descriptions 

 were obtained, the probable real paths are only generally indicated, or have 

 only hitherto been provisionally computed. Meteors of this conspicuous cha- 

 racter appeared also on the 16th of August, 1875, aud on the 15th of April, 

 llth,13th, loth, and21st of August in the present year. Some heights of shoot- 

 ing-stars observed in the August shower in 1874, and described in the Cata- 

 logue of last year's Eeport, are deduced from the observations, and are hero 

 presented as completely as the accuracy of the observations would permit. 



The occurrences of meteor-showers during the past year have been very 

 slight and ill-defined, with the exception of the August-shower displays of 

 1875 and of the present year. The present year's recurrence of the August 

 shower was, however, less plentiful than has been visible for several years 

 past, and has amounted to a real minimum of intensity of its annual appa- 

 ritions. 



A new general catalogue of meteor radiaut-points, with an accompanying 

 key-map, compiled diulng the past year by Mr. Greg, appears in the Eeport, 

 and a valuable contribution of reviews of the past year's records and exami- 

 nations of aerolites (of which the many remarkable occurrences continue to 

 increase in scientific importance year by year), by Dr. Flight, concludes its 

 pages. One of the most interesting of such events, it will be recollected, took 

 place this year in England, when a mass of iron weighing 7| lbs. fell at 

 Eowton, near the Wrekin ; and this, it may be observed, is only the seventh 

 instance where a mass of metallic iron of meteoric origin, or an aerosiderite, 

 has actually been seen to fall. This event took place in Shropshire, at 20 

 minutes to 4 o'clock p.m., on April 20, 1876. 



