Abstract
ABOUT five minutes past seven this evening I saw the most beautiful “shooting star” I have ever witnessed. It was moving from east to west directly over this town, and disappeared at an apparent distance of ten or twelve miles, after traversing an arc of about 75° as I saw it. It was visible whilst one might count ten or twelve at the usual rate of speaking. In its course it not only left a most unusually long train of light behind, but whole pieces kept dropping. What appeared is thus best described. These pieces followed the original for a space, leaving perceptible lines of light. Probably ten or a dozen such pieces were broken off during the time I was looking. Some idea of it may be gathered from the fact that for a time I thought it was a rocket. The light was remarkably white, the brilliance much above that of Venus at any time, and its rate of motion slow. The most remarkable feature, however, was the continuous breaking away of pieces, which left in turn visible trains of light.
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MASHEDER, T. Meteors. Nature 27, 483 (1883). https://doi.org/10.1038/027483d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/027483d0
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