142 An Account of a Meteor. 



about 25 miles west of New-Haven. Nathan Wheeler^ 

 Esq. of Weston, one of the justices of the court of com- 

 mon pleas for the county of Fairfield, -a gentleman of 

 great respectability, and of undoubted veracity, who 

 seems to have been entirely uninfluenced by fear or im- 

 agination, was passing at the time through an enclosure 

 adjoining his house, and had an opportunity of witnessing 

 the whole phenomenon. From him the account of the 

 appearance, progress, and explosion of the meteor, is 

 principally derived. The morning was somewhat cloudy. 

 The clouds were dispersed in unequal masses, being in 

 some places thick and opaque, and in others fleecy and 

 partially transparent. Numerous spots of unclouded 

 sky were visible, and along the northern part of the ho- 

 rizon a space of ten or fifteen degrees was perfectly clear. 

 The attention of Judge Wheeler was first drawn by a 

 sudden flash of light, which illuminated every object. 

 Looking up he discovered in the north a globe of fire, 

 just then passing behind the cloud, which obscured, 

 though it did not entirely hide the meteor. In this situ- 

 ation its appearance was distinct, and well defined, like 

 that of the sun seen through a mist. It rose from the 

 north, and proceeded in a direction nearly perpendicular 

 to the horizon, but inclining, by a very small angle, to 

 the west, and deviating a little from the plane of a great 

 circle, but in pretty large curves, sometimes on one side 

 of the plane, and sometimes on the other, but never ma- 

 king an angle with it of more than 4 or 5 degrees. Its 

 apparent diameter was about one half or two thirds the 

 apparent diameter of the full moon. Its progress was 

 not so rapid as that of common meteors and shooting 

 stars. When it passed behind the thinner clouds, it ap- 

 peared brighter than before ; and, when it passed the 

 spots of clear sky, it flashed with a vivid light, yet not 

 so intense as the lightning in a thunder-storm, but rather 

 like what is commonly called heat lightning. 



Where it was not too much obscured by thick clouds, 

 a waving conical train of paler light was seen to attend 

 it, in length about 10 or 12 diameters of the body. In 

 the clear sky a brisk scintillation was observed about 



