OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 311 



ward prolongation of the apparent track observed by Mr. Denning, about 

 nine or ten degrees above the horizon, due S.S.E. The linear pro- 

 longation of the Bristol track is directed from due S.E. to due N.W. with 

 a slope of 28°. The apparent paths in Kent, and near London, noted as 

 passing " horizontally " underneath the moon (then due W.S.W., alt. 22°) 

 at variously recorded altitudes from 12° to 20°, since they present a point 

 of convergence above the horizon with the Bristol track, are thus far 

 inadmissible. But, assuming, as is probable, that the apparent path observed 

 by Mr. Denning is exceedingly trustworthy, the least possible correction 

 which the Kentish tracks require is a slight inclination earthwards, near 

 the moon, sufficient to depress their point of convergence with the Bristol 

 path to the horizon, and to the same apparent earth-point, due N.W. 

 for all those apparent paths, as that of the meteor's course at Bristol. 

 With this slight emendation of those which were observed in the south- 

 eastern part of England, the real course of the fireball would be parallel 

 to the earth's surface, 40 or 50 miles above it, from S.E. to N.W. But 

 the observation at Prees, about 15 miles north of Shrewsbury, where the 

 meteor must have travelled at an altitude of about 15° from S. to 

 S.W., that there it " appeared first in the south, moving horizontally 

 westwards," is less easy to reconcile than the Kentish observations with a 

 truly horizontal flight of the fireball from a radiant point at the S.E. to a 

 point of convergence at the N.W. point of the horizon, and shows very 

 clearly that the real position of the radiant point on the apparent line of 

 flight observed at Bristol was not at or close to its intersection prolonged 

 backwards with the horizon, due S.E , but at some point upon it at an 

 appreciable altitude above the horizon, more nearly south. The above 

 adopted real path has at its commencement, as seen from Prees, near 

 Shrewsbury, a slight upward slope of barely 10° at starting in the south, 

 beginning there at an altitude of 14°, and just reaching its greatest 

 altitude of 17°, 35° westwards from this point in the S.W. by S. At 

 Hawkhurst, Greenwich, and other neighbouring places in the S.E. of 

 England, it began at alt. 17°, also the highest possible altitude of its 

 course there, and passed 7° below the moon (at an altitude of 15° W.S.W.), 

 descending there with a slope of about 7° from horizontal towards an 

 earth-point 40° N. from W. and disappearing at an altitude of 8° or 9°, 

 just one point N. of west. While this course almost exactly represents 

 the observed altitudes in Kent, with the exception of that of commencement 

 (which measured by memory in the open sky was uncertain) at Hawk- 

 hurst, it begins, just as the Shrewsbury apparent path ends, horizontally, 

 and at the points where the apparent course was described as " horizontal " 

 in Kent and near Shrewsbury the real direction was descending with a 

 slope of 7° at the first, and ascending with a slope of 10° from horizontal 

 at the last of those points of view. No fairer distribution of the scarcely 

 sensible errors of description which present themselves in the two accounts 

 can probably be made, and the very good adjustment to each other, of 

 which they actually admit, shows that the radiant point above adopted 

 must be very nearly the true one, and that the track of the fireball as 

 above derived from those descriptions, represents, in all probability, very 

 closely the height, direction and position of the fireball's real flight above 

 the earth. 



Even in Kent amidst the rays of the moon and of twilight, the meteor's 

 light was stronger than, and cast a distinct shadow like that of the moon. 

 The longer diameter of its nucleus, at Twickenham, near London, appeared 



