A CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 153 
[ 4 Direction or Altitude. General remarks. Place. Observer. Reference. 
—_—|—_— | | | 
near y Andromedzto near Osborne Place,/G. V.. Vernon,|MS. communica- 
Lyre. Old Trafford,} F.R.A.S. tion, 
Manchester. 
Quainton, 6 miles}]..........sceeeeee --.|Communicated by 
thestrawdisturb-| N.W. of Ayles- Mrs. Smyth, St 
ed and turned up| bury. John’s Lodge, 
where it fell. Aylesbury, 
Polaris through B Ursz}.........006. sesseseeeee(Stretton,  near|Prof. Powell and 
inoris. Disappeared behind Ledbury. family. 
house. 
n first seen about 25° abovel..cscesscesessessseeeees Temple Gardens,|J. Pope Hennesy|MS. communica- 
horizon 8.S.E. Disappeared London. tion. 
at 12° above horizonatS.S.W. 
mgh the zenith from N.E.|.......secseeseeeeeeeees{Near Willesden,|Mrs. Baden 
toS.W. Middlesex. Powell. 
horizontally. Of this he gives various striking instances. In fact, all the 
large, intensely brilliant meteors, move across the sky more or less horizon- 
tally, while those which fall near the perpendicular are always small and in- 
conspicuous. The paths of the large and brilliant meteors of Bononia 1670, 
of 1719 and 1783 in England, were horizontal, while those of Weston, U.S., 
1807, of Benares and of L’Aigle, which were less bright, moved in more in- 
clined paths. He observes that the most extraordinary circumstance is the 
enormous apparent magnitude of the luminous mass or ball, as calculated from 
the ascertained distance. Thus the Weston meteor was 500 feet in diameter, 
and those of 1719 and 1783 were estimated at half amile. Yet the quantity 
of matter known to fall has been but very small in comparison. It has been 
alleged that only a few fragments were attracted to the earth while the great 
mass rebounded from the atmosphere, a condition which the author contends 
is impossible. He is of opinion that the actual solid masses of these bodies 
are very much smaller, and then adverts to the observations of Professor 
Lawrence Smith (of which an account was given in the last Report), who 
has assigned an optical cause for this phenomenon. 
The author, however, dissents from that conclusion, and alleges that the 
effect in the experiments there mentioned, of apparent great enlargement in 
the dises of luminous bodies seen at a distance, is really due not to any cause 
analogous to irradiation, or of an ocular kind, as there supposed, but simply 
‘to the reflective power of the atmosphere, which he considers to be made out 
8. M 
PSP LOS DA MBL 
