285 ' ON SHOOtING STARS. 



c«sarytoour States of the air are best adapted, by its clearness, lor seeing 

 i^eing t em. ^^^ smaller stars and planets, or any small distant object by 

 land ; and I wish particularly to call the attention of your 

 Meteorological Correspondent to notice, whether the ab- 

 sence of the ttvilight, moon-light, &c. is not equally essentia! 

 to seeing numbers of the small rapidly shooting-stars; as I 

 certainly found them to be, in a series of observations conti- 

 i>ued for more than a year in 1800 and 1801, in conjunction 

 ■with an able friend at 6 miles distance ; and whence it 

 seemed ascertained, that these phenomena are occasioned by 

 Probably ihey an almost infinite number of satelliiuJce, or very small 



are sateUitules, moons, constantly revolvincr round the Earth, in all possible 

 of which an m- ' . . 



finite number directions, and appearing only during the very short time 



"^°^^ '" ^" *^'* that they dip into the upper part of the atmosphere each 

 rections round , . ■ -, -, 



the Earth, time that they are in perigee : and that no step seems want- 

 ing in the degree of this dip into the atmosphere, and their 

 consequent brightness, length, and slowness of courses, &c. 

 from the smal. between the smallest instantaneous shooting-stars, and the 

 iSgest m^ete- largest meteors, (such as that of August, 1T83, alluded toby 

 ors. your correspondent,) which throw off with explosions angu- 



' lar fragments of metallic and stony matters, that so fre- 

 quently fall to the Earth, as meteoric stones. The long 

 trains or streaks of iiglit, often mentioned as le/t by meteors 

 for some instants, will frequently be found mere optical de- 

 ceptions, owing to the eye iiot following the meteor, but suf- 

 fering it to cross the field of sight, where its impression .is 

 left, on known optical principles. 



Hoping to see this important class of phenomena more 

 closely and extensively investigated than they hitherto have 

 been, 



I remain, Sir, 

 ^ Your obedient humble Servant, 



JOHN FAIIEY, Sen. 



Upper Crown Street, Westminster^ 

 5th Nov. 181!. 



IX. 



