OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 



285 



THE YEAR ENDING IN AUGUST, 1878— continued. 



Length of 

 Path 



45° 



20° 



Long path 



20° 



Abont 30° 

 while in 



sight. 



3° or 4° : 

 sight ; 

 green and 

 red; 

 breadth 

 §, length = 

 1 diam. of 

 the moon 



Direction or Radiant-point 



[Radiant, if common to both 

 meteors, at 35° + 36°, Tri- 

 angulum.] 



I 



Appearance, Remarks, &c. 



Course, serpentine or wavy... 



Real course 8° or 10° W. of 



N. 



The direction only well ob 

 served in the last part of 

 its flight- 



Nucleus with a short tail of 

 sparks. This and the next 

 were two perfectly similar 

 meteors ; but not from the 

 same radiant point [?]. 



Nucleus with a short tail of 

 sparks ; appeared 10 seconds 

 after the last meteor. 



[The course, as roughly stated, 

 is almost the exact opposite 

 of that described at York !] 



Appeared far brighter than 

 Vega Lyra?, when passing it. 

 [The other two stars form 

 with Vega a large triangle 

 which is nearly right-angled 

 at a Lyrse !] 



Exploded over the S.B. corner 

 of Halifax County, 15 or 20 

 miles W., a little S. from 

 Clarksville, Va. 



The head was circular in out- 

 line, followed by a tail of 

 red stars, estimated at be- 

 tween 10° and 15° in length 

 After a lapse of between 5 m 

 and 10 m a loud distant ex- 

 plosion, lasting about 1 se- 

 cond, came from the West. 



[The same direction of its 

 course ("from square of 

 Pegasus to near Altair ") 

 was noted at Rotherham 

 near Sheffield, by Dr. S, 

 Drew ; bluish green, glo- 

 bular, then elongated, rud- 

 dy, with tail. Slow ; no 

 sound of bursting ; (' Na- 

 ture,' vol. xvii. p. 94).] 



Fell vertically. [Like a fine 

 shooting star at first, but 

 suddenly enlarged, as if 



[The equatorial room filled 

 with green light ; turning to 

 the west window, saw the 

 fragments of the explosion 

 falling in the sky, the colours 

 of their streaks of light 

 being red and green. At 

 4 h 10 m p.m., Nov. 22nd, a very 

 vivid flash of (?) lightning 

 made an open book look quite 

 green.] 



The slight light-track or trail 

 left, vanished immediately 

 [An account of its appearance 



Observer or 

 Reference 



E. Pickard. (Commu- 

 nicated by J. E. 

 Clark.) 



Id. Do. 



E. Catchpool. (Com 

 municated by J. E. 

 Clark.) 



Id. (These four de 

 scriptions are in the 

 'Nat. Hist- Journal 

 of Societies in 

 Friends' Schools,' 

 vol. i, p. 152.) 



Memoir on the Meteor 

 by J. L. Campbell, 

 in the ' Scientific 

 American,' vol iii. p 

 2, 1878. 



Dr. Grimesdale, and 

 Richard Caton. 

 (Communicated by 

 R. P. Greg.) Fuller 

 descriptions and dis- 

 cussions of this large 

 meteor are elsewhere 

 given in this Ap 

 pendix. 



E. Pickard and A. 

 Pumphrey. 'Natural 

 History Journal, ' vol 

 i. p. 153, Dec, 1877 

 [Joseph Gledhill.] 



F. A. Buxton, 'Na- 

 ture,' vol. xvii. p, 

 94 ; Nov. 29th, 1877 



