Splendid Meteors

Abstract

ON Saturday evening last, March 25, at about half-past nine local time, I happened to be observing some stars in the eastern quarter of the heavens, when I was astonished by the sudden appearance of a brilliant meteor with a long tail, or streamer, of a reddish hue. The colour of the ball itself was a vivid bluish white. It seemed to start from near ε Virginis, or a little to the right of that position, and to take a leisurely course in a straight line towards the north under Arcturus, α Coronæ Borealis, and ε Herculis, till I lost it behind some houses not far from the northern point of the horizon, if anything, a little to the east of that point. I was most struck with the leisurely pace at which it moved, so different from an ordinary falling star, the velocity appearing to slacken as it proceeded, like that of a railway train after it has passed a spectator. Just when passing under Arcturus, the globular head broke up, not unlike one of the fire-balls of a rocket, into a string of five or six luminous beads, getting smaller and smaller towards the tail. The entire length of the meteor seemed to be fore-shortened as it receded towards the horizon. Judging without a watch, I estimated the interval between its appearance and disappearance to be about nine seconds. At the same time a second meteor of inferior dimensions and briefer duration took a somewhat parallel course between Boötes and Ursa Major.