
% 
Ti4 Mr. Ausert’s Account He two Meteors, .. 
that I could fee every objekt diftincly, and when it was ex=. 
tinguifhed the night appeared very dark: I could however fee 
by as that it was feventeen minutes after nine: as. 
foon as I got to my obfervatory, which might be about ten 
minutes afterwards, having compared it with my regulator, F 
found it about half a minute too flow for mean time. I think 
the whole appearance of the meteor, from its firft rifing out of 
the hazy part of the atmofphere to its total extinction, did not: 
exceed ten or twelve feconds of time, during which it moved a. 
fpace correfponding to about 136° in azimuth. I recollect an. 
appearance during its motion, aaa confirms me in the idea. 
Ihad of its not being a folid body. In its progrefs it did not 
defcribe a curve as regular as might have been expected from. 
fuch a body; but feemed to move in fomewhat of a waving: 
line. This irregularity in its-courfe was probably owing to. 
changes of its figure and fize, occafioned by the train of in- 
flammation not running in an even line. I fhould alfo men-. 
tion that the meteor appeared extremely near to me, more- 
particularly when it was at the higheft; yet from the com-. 
parifons made already of obfervations. at {everal diftant places, 
we may reafonably judge, that it could not be at lefs than 40. 
or 50 miles diftance from-the furface of the earth... 
The meteor of Saturday the 4th of O&tcber laft was: of a, 
much fhorter duration and path. JF was on horfeback, near- 
the ftones, end, in Blackman-Street, Southwark; my face- 
was turned northward. I faw, towards the N.N. E. a train, 
of fire, refenrbling in its motion a common meteor, vulgarly: 
called a falling ftar, but the colour of it was red 5. it originated’ 
at an altitude of about 25°, and moved quickly in a ftrait line- 
eaftward, inclining gradually towards the horizon, {fo as to be, 
after_a_courfe of 15° or 20° in azimuth, about 15° above the- 
horizon,_ 
