Abstract
THE extreme height of our atmosphere has been determined heretofore from the observation of meteors, which begin to glow when the friction becomes sufficiently intense to vaporise the materials of which they are composed. This method is very satisfactory from most points of view, and will perhaps continue to be used by astronomers. Nevertheless, I think it worth while to direct attention to another method, which is more simple, and which, I believe, will be found equally accurate. It consists in observing with the naked eye the gradual disappearance of the blue colour of the sky as darkness comes on. It is surprising how accurate a person of good sight can make this observation when the atmosphere is perfectly clear. The time of sunset should be noted, and the time of the last sensible blue of the sky. With the data in the Nautical Almanac a simple computation by spherical trigonometry gives the depression of the sun at the instant the blue fades out into black, and we at once calculate the height of the illuminated particles overhead. The following are the results of some observations taken by the writer at Annapolis, Md.:—
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SEE, T. Height of the Atmosphere Determined from the Time of Disappearance of Blue Colour of the Sky after Sunset. Nature 68, 526 (1903). https://doi.org/10.1038/068526c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/068526c0
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