264 report— 1878. 



APPENDIX. 



I. Meteors doubly observed. 



Among the lists of occasional observations of shooting-stars received by 

 the Committee during the past year, a few examples occur of simultaneous 

 observations by observers at distant stations of meteors which agree 

 together in every particular of their description, and which, on account of 

 the regularity of the watches kept, the few meteors noted on the same 

 dates, and the good accordance also of the apparent paths when allowance 

 is made for the observers' positions as regards length and direction of 

 the base-line between their stations, were undoubtedly independent 

 views of the same meteoric bodies, and will, therefore, afford approximate 

 data of the distances and positions, and of the lengths and directions of 

 their real paths. One additional observation of each of two meteors re- 

 corded in last year's Fireball List has been received, and the descriptions 

 of those meteors, at 10 h 44 m p.m., June 10th, 1876, and 10 h 25 m p.m., 

 August 10th, 1877, already given, are here repeated for compainson with 

 the new descriptions of them which have since been received. 



The radiant-points concluded from the recorded paths by their direct 

 projections are added in the last column but one of the list. But to 

 these positions, when the tracks nearly overlie each other, and therefore 

 give results very largely and doubtfully affected by the errors of observa- 

 tion, too much importance must not be attached in respect of the varia- 

 tions which they sometimes show from the independent estimates of their 

 probable radiant-points which were originally attached to them by the 

 observers. Radiant positions thus found are yet data of the first and 

 greatest interest to be extracted from such observations. A complete 

 discussion of the heights, velocities, and other particulars of these 

 meteors' real paths, and of those of a similar list of doubly observed 

 shooting- stars presented in last year's Report, is postponed at present, 

 until materials for a more general communication on the results of such 

 comparisons present themselves in the course of future observations. 



II. Large Meteors. 



Many of the desci'iptions of fireballs seen during the past year have 

 furnished reliable materials for determining their real courses and the 

 probable astronomical relationships of their orbits. A condensed account 

 of these occurrences is given in this Appendix, as most of the following 

 notes were collected from very scattered sources, and are not the results 

 of preparation and of systematic watches, like those of the foregoing 

 Appendix. The two lists which are included in this Appendix contain 

 the final determinations of the real paths of the most brilliant and widely 

 observed of the past year's bolides and detonating meteors, and such 

 accounts of others, not so widely observed, as private and published 

 descriptions of them have enabled the Committee to collect. 



On June 14th, 1877, 8 h 52 m p.m., Paris Time. The large fireball 

 of this date seen in the south of France by M. Gruey at Clermont Ferrand 

 (Puy-de-D6me) was also observed at Bordeaux and at Angouleme with 

 accurate positions by the stars. The agreement of the recorded paths with 



