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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1286 



These long- vertical shoots of light presently 

 extending around half the horizon, forming 

 what was the most noted feature of the display 

 for this locality; that is the continuity and 

 great extent simultaneously over the heavens 

 of masses of shafts of aurora half way ahout 

 the horizon and up to the zenith where the 

 light shafts met in a great cloud which 

 momentarily shifted its form and extent. 



Chromatic effects noted were pale rose pink 

 and a delicate apple green. These were dis- 

 tributed apparently in local spots the green to 

 east. A brilliant full moon added an unusual 

 feature to the display. The lights faded sud- 

 denly about 10 : 15 p.m. and locally were not 

 reported as of any moment later than that. 



Aurora is not rare at this locality in 

 August but this is the most extended demon- 

 stration seen by me here in some years. 



Frederick Ehrenfeld 

 Ogunquit, Maine 



I WAS very much interested in the descrip- 

 tions of the auroral display of May 2, pub- 

 lished in Science for May 23, and especially so 

 in that of Mr. G. Irving Gavett, as it seems 

 that I saw here in Washington, D. C, the same 

 display that he saw in "Washington state and at 

 about the same time. I was observing with 

 the photographic zenith tube of the TJ. S. Naval 

 Observatory on that evening and entered a 

 note, at about 12'' 0" Washington sidereal time 

 (14' 27"" G. M. T.). The display at this time 

 did not strike me as unusual except in the 

 brightness of the illumination. There was the 

 usual northern arch and streamers and at one 

 time, of which I made no note, a patch of very 

 deep red in the northwest. 



At IS"" 43"" Washington sidereal time, I first 

 saw what was to rae a very peculiar display. A 

 band of light as broad as the Milky Way, but 

 much brighter, extended from a point on the 

 western horizon about ten degrees south of 

 Pollux, passed just north of the Sickle in Leo, 

 over Alpha Canum Vaneticorum and Corona 

 Borealis and faded out on the eastern horizon 

 about ten degrees south of Altair. It seemed 

 nearly twice as broad at the meridian as at the 



horizon. The lights of the city illuminate the 

 southeastern horizon considerably and the in- 

 tensity did not appear as great there as at the 

 zenith, nor did it seem as bright at the zenith 

 as in the west. I made the note " bright as an 

 army searchlight at 13' 43""' for this part of 

 it. It faded very rapidly until at 14' 0" Wash- 

 ington sidereal time it was " just discernible " 

 in the west. But it brightened up again and 

 at 14' 15" was as bright as the Milky Way in 

 Cygnus on a very clear night and " traceable 

 to the zenith." The band was broken into two 

 parts between thirty and forty-five degrees 

 from the horizon hy a dark lane about one de- 

 gree wide inclined at an angle of about fifteen 

 degrees to the line of light and presented much 

 the same appearance as the Milky Way in 

 Cygnus in this respect also. The greatest in- 

 tensity in this second maximum occurred at 

 about 14' 30™. The light at this time seemed 

 to pulsate slightly after the fashion of some 

 streamers from the northern arch. This was 

 not pronounced, however. 



During the whole display the position of the 

 band remained practically constant. A slight 

 change in the position of the band with respect 

 to the Sickle in Leo wa,s noted but this was 

 attributed to the motion of the stars them- 

 selves as they were setting, the shift of the 

 band being southward. I do not recall the ap- 

 pearance of the northern sky at the time of this 

 display. If there was aurora there it was not 

 prominent. 



In Popular Astronomy (Vol. XXVIL, p. 

 405), Mr. William H. Wagner describes the 

 same phenomenon as seen from West Reading, 

 Pa. From his description and by the use of a 

 celestial globe I estimated that its parallax as 

 seen from the two places amounted to very 

 nearly twenty degrees. West Reading, Pa., is 

 roughly one degree five minutes east and one 

 degree twenty-five minutes north of Washing- 

 ton, D. C. From a consideration of this data, 

 which is inherently approximate, I deduce an 

 altitude of 275 miles above the earth's surface 

 for the beam of light. Its width from north 

 to south then was about 60 miles, and if it was 

 continuous between here and Seattle, Wash- 



