OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 143 



early part of September, 1875, particulars of the appearance of that of 

 September 14th as seen at Bradford are extracted from the ' Bradford Ob- 

 server' of September 15th, where it is related that "to a spectator it bore 

 the appearance of some solid body in a state of combustion, the sparks flying 

 out on all sides, and a track of flame being left after its passage. Its passage 

 was accompanied by a noise as of a loud explosion, which was plainly heard, 

 not only by those who were outside, but by persons inside the houses who 

 did not see the aerolite itself. All parties concur in saying that so strong a 

 light was cast around that a newspaper could easily be read for the space of 

 half a minuto." 



It should be remarked as a curious coincidence, not unfrequently recorded 

 in the accounts of large meteors, that a companion fireball of the brilliant 

 meteor of September 14th was noticed by one observer of its appearance, Mr. 

 J. J. Allinson, at Lynn, Norfolk, states that " at 8** 20™ p.m., the moon 

 shining brilliantly in a cloudless and clear sky, I saw very low down in the 

 eastern heavens a bright meteor of a bluish colour, three or four times the 

 size and two or three times the brightness of Venus at her largest and 

 brightest. The bearing was about E. by N., and it seemed moving in a 

 northerly direction, but, by its getting larger, to be approaching the spot 

 where I was standing. I should say it disappeared before reaching the 

 horizon. [There is little doubt. Captain Tupman observes, that this meteor 

 belonged to the same meteor-system as the much larger companion fireball 

 by which it was shortly followed.] About 4 or 5 minutes afterwards, whilst 

 looking in a south-westerly direction, I was attracted by a bright light in the 

 north-western sky, and on looking towards that quarter observed a most 

 splendid meteor, about the size and colour of the first, but much more 

 brilliant, descending from near the last star [>;] in the tail of the Great Bear 

 in an almost vertical, but I should say somewhat irregular course." Of the 

 former of these two fireballs no corresponding observations (as it must have 

 been seen over distant parts of the North Sea or over Belgium) from other places 

 have hitherto been obtained ; but from its central position over the midland 

 and northern counties of England, observations of the second extremely bright 

 meteor of the pair were recorded abundantly at all stations throughout the 

 country, as has been described, from its interest and importance, in the fore- 

 going paragraphs at considerable length. 



Both this large fireball and that which preceded it on Sept. 7th may be 

 presumed from these descriptions to have been " aerolitic " or detonating 

 ones ; and it is remarkable that they had nearly a common radiant-point, and 

 that this point of divergence or real direction of the two meteors' flights is 

 in close agreement with well-established radiant-points of shooting-stars in 

 the first half of September, to which the observations of Ileis and Schmidt, and 

 the meteor-shower lists of Greg and Tupman, all agree in assigning very nearly 

 corresponding places and durations. The following Table, p. 144 (from the 

 'Monthly Notices' of the Astronomical Society stij). cit.), describes the results 

 of calculation from observations of these three large meteors ; and the closing 

 words of his communication to the 'Astronomical Eegister' (from which the 

 foregoing particulars are extracted) will here describe the astronomical deter- 

 minations obtained by Captain Tupman as regards the actual orbits and the 

 probable known showers or systems of ordinary shooting-stars to which the 

 last two detonating fireballs of these three bright September meteors may, in 

 all probability, be conjectured to have belonged. 



