Schroter' s Meteors* 145 



2s., and consequently the whole duration of the phenomenon 

 about 4s. (sic in orig.) till its final and entire extinction. The 

 circumstances of the observation showed sufficiently that this 

 display could not be referred to the lunar surface, but must 

 have been developed much nearer the earth. The streams were 

 not larger than the representation in the original drawing held 

 18 inches from the eye, or about 9 inches for our reduced copy, 

 and they caused no perceptible illumination of the field. This 

 was only 9' in diameter, of which they occupied about half, or 

 5', -J- of the diameter of the moon, and each stream took some 

 2s. to traverse this little distance. Hence Schroter infers that 

 the meteor was situated at a remoteness from the earth far ex- 

 ceeding the general idea of the extent of our atmosphere. 

 This is not improbable ; and it may be thought not unlikely 

 that the observer was actually fortunate enough to catch sight of 

 a portion of one of the meteoric rings which are now believed 

 to intersect at certain times the earth's orbit — the principal 

 difficulty lying in the circumstance that his little sparks were 

 kindled in the middle of the field, instead of coming into sight 

 at its edge. However, if this were so, it would seem to follow 

 that these mysterious bodies are not ignited by the resistance 

 of our atmosphere, but must exist in a self-luminous condition. 



Telescopic meteors are uncommon, but perhaps not more so 

 than might be expected considering the smallness of ordinary 

 fields as compared with the extent of the sky. I believe that 

 I have more than once seen something of this nature ; — and on 

 one occasion, 1847, Aug. 31, I have expressly noted that a 

 minute falling star passed across the field of the telescope which 

 must have been totally invisible to the naked eye. But a more 

 curious instance may be found in the description which Schroter 

 published (in 1796) of his 27-foot reflector. This grand instru- 

 ment, which was mounted in 1793, had two nearly equal 

 metallic specula, the largest measuring 19-^ English inches ; 

 and seems to have performed very well for its date, though 

 it may be questioned whether any work of that day was equal 

 to what is now successfully accomplished, especially on glass 

 surfaces. Its front-view action on the starry heavens seems to 

 have been very striking : and though of course not equal in 

 grasp of light to the 40-foot reflector of Herschel I., must 

 have had some little advantage over the more frequently used 

 20-foot of the same observer. His description of its resolution 

 of the galaxy is interesting. Even in the dark opening near a 

 Gygni, he found several little stars ; only a tolerably circular 

 space of about 4' appeared free, yet even in this void he pre- 

 sently detected an extremely minute glimmering point. But 

 on a subsequent occasion the impression of allowing a rich part 

 of the galaxy near the same spot to pass through the field of 15' 



VOL. XI. — NO. II. L 



