A Fine Shooting-Star; and Heights of Meteors in August and November 1895

Abstract

A REMARKABLY bright shooting-star was seen here on Saturday, June 13, at 10.59 p.m., under such favourable conditions of a clear sky and warm calm air on that evening, that it may possibly have happened that other notes were kept of its appearance, in the South of England, by astronomical observers. It was not a large-sized fireball, but in its course of about 30° it increased quickly from the brightness of a 1st mag. star to that of Sirius and of Jupiter, and just before its disappearance it shone with a short white flash as bright as Venus, which lit up the sky quite distinctly to about 20° or 30° from its final bright expansion. The head was white, free from sparks, and left along the greater portion of its course a yellow streak of light, of which a portion 8° or 10° in length was visible 10 seconds, while a shorter piece, 3° or 4° long at the end of that, where the bright flash occurred, growing white and misty by degrees, remained visible for 40 seconds. Duration of the flight about 2 seconds; from 230°, + 20° to 208°, − 4°; the patch of long-enduring streak extending about from 212°, ± 0°, to 2090, − 3°.