138 REPORT-— 1876. 



APPENDIX. 



I. Meteoes Doubly Observed. 



In the list of observations presented with last year's Report, several 

 exarajjles of meteors doubly observed, chiefly in the August meteor-shower 

 in 1874, occurred, and the heights and real paths of these meteors have been 

 calculated. The computed real paths and velocities, and the radiant-points 

 from which the meteors were directed, are shown in the Table opposite. 



It is probable that few observations are sufiiciently trustworthy to give 

 correct values of the speeds of individual meteors ; but among several 

 such determinations the average velocity of the Perscids here found may be 

 regarded as approximately ascertained, and it does not greatly exceed the 

 value which theory assigns to it. The real path and radiant-point of the 

 fireball of August 10th, 1874, has been recalculated, as weU as the velocity 

 from tlie average of two observed durations of its flight ; the calculated speed 

 is within a mile of the velocity- of a bod}'^ moving in a parabolic orbit from the 

 direction of the radiant determined by its apparent paths. The latter point 

 is very near a known radiant-point of a shower to which it may be presumed 

 that this large fireball belonged, and a marked centre of radiation of 

 shooting-stars near (^ e Aquarii, duiing the annual shower of Pcrsei'ds, is 

 thus probably confirmed by this double observation. The recorded tracks of 

 the fireball at Birmingham and Xewcastle-on-Tyne diverge from a centre 

 at R.A. .313°, S. Decl. 14° ; and a radiant-point from the 3rd to the 31st of 

 August is shown by Dr. Schmidt's investigations to be observable at E.A. 

 306°, S. Decl. 8°. The star e Aquarii (R.A. 310°, 8. Decl. 10°), near this, at 

 some distance from which several other radiant-points for July and August 

 are clustered in Aquarius, occupies the extreme west, while the latter radiants 

 more nearly adjoin a star (Il.A. 333°, S. Decl. 8") which is in the eastern 

 part of the same constellation *. 



In the list of large meteors which accompanies this Report, an observation 

 of a large fireball on August lOtli, 1875, at lU'' 26"" p.m., near St. Agnes, 

 Cornwall, is described, of which two other descriptions also appeared in ' The 

 Times' of August 21st and 25th, showing that the meteor was A^sible over 

 a very wide area, from Wales to Erittanv in France. 



Ty Mawr, Ty Llangelly, near Criekhow"ell ; Mr. H. Ball.—" On August 16th, 

 at lO"* 26"' P.M., I saw a very bright meteor, which is probably the same as 

 that seen by your correspondent F.R.S., from St. Agnes, Cornwall. From 

 this place its position was nearly 5° below and to the right of the full moon, 

 on a line inclined 4.5° to the horizon." 



Redon, Lower Brittany, France'; F.R.G.S. — " It may be worth while 

 mentioning that the meteor seen in Cornwall and Wales was also seen by 

 me at Redon, Lower Brittany, at the same time. It was exceedingly bril- 

 liant, and, as F.R.S. remarked, it much resembled a string of magnesium 

 beads. The night was singularly clear and the moon very bright, but the 



* In the copy of Schmidt's list of radiant-points printed in the vohime of these Eeports 

 for 1874, p. 321, it should have been observed that the positions to which days as well as 

 months of duration are assigned are asterisked in the original list as accurately (tlie rest 

 being less accurately) determined. The radiants near 9 Aquarii in Schmidt's and 

 Tupman's lists are erroneously quoted in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical 

 Society (vol. xxxvi. p. 218) as being the " nearest known "' radiants to the above deecribed 

 point of emanation of this meteor's real course. 



