220 Observed Heights of Meteors and Shooting Stars. 



have been directed through this point almost direct upon Man- 

 chester, and hence we obtain by the London observation a 

 flight of 176 miles in five or sis seconds ; from 126 miles over 

 Winchester to 21 miles over the north point of Staffordshire, 

 at an inclination of 37° to the horizon, from 16° E. of S. ; 

 and in this course of 105 vertical and 140 horizontal miles, the 

 flame was kindled into brilliance two distinct and separate times. 



On the 8th of August the Eev. James Challis saw at Cam- 

 bridge a second magnitude star shoot downwards at alt. 40°, 

 11° E. of S., rapidly at an inclination of 30° to the right from 

 horizontal. While at Greenwich, within 20 sec. of the same 

 time, Messrs. W. 0. Nash and J. Howe saw a second magnitude 

 star pass very rapidly from a Cygni to Delphinus, leaving a 

 faint tail. 



Placing the Greenwich centre at q Vulpecuke, we have a 

 line of sight which intersects the Cambridge line of sight 

 accurately at 67 miles over Sandhurst, in Kent, through which 

 point this meteor was directed upon Alton, in Hampshire, at 

 46° from horizontal towards 3° S. of W. The meteor may 

 have been 20 miles long, with a speed of 30 or 40 miles a 

 second. 



Two minutes later a flash was seen at Cambridge Observa- 

 tory by Mr. A. Bowden, altitude 61°, 73° E. from S. No path 

 could be perceived in it. Dr. Lee's party of observers at 

 Aylesbury beheld it near u Andromedee, but from the absence 

 of any bright stars for reference near the foot of Andromedse, 

 we must not trust this observation beyond a certain point. It 

 was recorded by Mr. S. Horton " Like a gas flame suddenly 

 lighted and then put out. Very curious." These two lines of 

 sight are 12 miles asunder, at 50 miles above the neighbour- 

 hood of Bury St. Edmunds, and as the parallax is 34°, we 

 must suppose this singular meteor to have had no per- 

 ceptible path, but to have been indeed, as described at both 

 stations, a momentary flash equal to the illumination of not 

 one, but of 500 or 600 gas-lights at once ; for it is recorded 

 equal to a second magnitude star at Cambridge, and there its 

 distance was 54 miles. 



The next accordances were on the 10th, when two third 

 magnitude meteors appeared at Greenwich, one below the 

 other, whose paths at Cranford were coincident. The appari- 

 tions were undoubtedly the same, but the observations are 

 somewhat vague. The lines of sight for one meteor pass 15 

 miles apart, at 30 miles over Guildford, in Surrey. Those for 

 the second are 19 miles apart, 105 miles over Bishop Waltham, 

 in Dorsetshire ; both appear to have been nearly vertical. 



Three minutes after this remarkable pair, a more brilliant 

 meteor shot at Cranford to the right in the square of Pegasus. 



