OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 83 



Mr. Coi'der. No observation of the time of flight was recorded from 

 which the real velocity might have been determined ; but the real 

 direction of the meteor's course is fonnd to be so exactly conformable to a 

 centre of divergence of a meteor shower detected by Mr. Denning on 

 the nights of December 1 — 2, 1877 (including a bright fireball from 

 334° — 11° to 322° -181°), that a connection of the fireball with this 

 newly discovered November-December meteor system may be pretty 

 certainly concluded. 



1877, December 9, 8 h 12 m p.m. Meteor as bright as Jupiter observed 

 in Kent and Essex, and at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. — The path 

 of this bright meteor has been computed from the data of its appearance 

 at Writtle and Bromley given in last year's report, with the addition 

 to them of observations of the meteor in London, and at the Royal 

 Observatory, Greenwich, now added in the present fireball list. Mr. 

 Corder's opinion that the meteor belonged to a system of bright streak- 

 leaving, long-pathed meteors diverging on the same night from the 

 direction of a companion radiant of the ' Geminid ' shower, near i 

 Geminorum, is exactly confirmed by the combined projection of all the 

 observations ; and a satisfactory agreement is at the same time found 

 among them for determining the height and locality, and the real velocity 

 of the meteor's flight. These results Major Tupman has deduced with 

 the new materials of the Greenwich and London observations which he 

 supplied, among other reductions of double observations of large meteors 

 which he obtained last year, and he obligingly communicated them to the 

 Committee as they are briefly represented in the present Table. 



1878, December 30, 6 h 55 m p.m. (Indianapolis Time) ; Ohio, Indiana, 

 and Pennsylvania, U.S. — This is another bright fireball of which Pro- 

 fessor Kirkwood has collected and discussed some observations (see the 

 accompanying general meteor list, and the fireball of August ll, 1878, 

 above), in the Paper on Large Fireballs of the years 1878-79, which he 

 communicated in May last to the American Philosophical Society. By a 

 description at Washington, Pa., the attention of an observer walking 

 eastwards was arrested by a sudden light like that of an additional street 

 lamp lighted close behind him. Turning after a little time to that direction, 

 he saw a meteor about half the full moon's apparent diameter (which was 

 then shining brightly, but behind houses) falling in the W.N.W., large 

 and brilliant, and of a slight greenish colour. After coursing about 24° 

 (from near a Cygni to near a Lyra?, by a later visit with Professor 

 M'Adam, of Washington and Jefferson College, to the same place) it 

 changed its colour to a reddish tint and disappeared. It was seen at 

 Anderson, Indiana, about 270 miles due west from Washington, Pa., 

 com m encing due east, at an altitude of between 15° and 17°, and imme- 

 diately disappearing behind houses. 



The description at Wooster, Ohio (which is given in the accom- 

 panying meteor-list) assigned very exact positions of both the points of 

 appearance and disappearance of the course. Combined with the account 

 at Washington, Pa., it gives the end-height and position of the meteor 

 over a point (in Tuscarawas County, Ohio) 70 miles distant W. by N. from 

 the latter station, while the point of commencement is found, by com- 

 bining the account at Anderson, Ind., with that at Wooster, Ohio, to 

 have been 72 miles over Columbiana County, Ohio, lat. 40° 50' N, long. 

 3° 40' W. from Washington. The whole length of the track seen at 

 Washington, Pa., was about 85 miles, descending with a slope of 45° from 



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