Brilliant Meteors

Abstract

ON Sunday evening, (Nov. 3), at 5.30, a magnificent “bolide” was observed at Glasgow, shooting athwart the sky. It made its first appearance in the Constellation Auriga (about 10° to the left of Capella); from thence it glided slowly across the sky, shining with a brilliant green light, and exhibiting a pearshaped disc of one-third of the apparent diameter of the full moon. When it had arrived at the middle of its path (being almost due north), its velocity abated, and its colour changed to a whitish-blue. The meteor, accompanied by a diminutive red tail, and followed by a train of sparks, then regained its original velocity, and gradually approaching the horizon, eventually disappeared behind a cloud lying parallel, and close to the horizon in the N.N.W. The whole time occupied during its flight being 2.5′. In my letter reporting the auroral display of Nov. 10 last year, I suggested the application of Photography to the solution of auroral problems; might I venture to ask if any of your photographic correspondents have been able, during the displays of this year, to prove the possibility of taking auroral photos? I think the results would be interesting to most of your readers.