Meteor

Abstract

ON the night of Tuesday, April 2, at about 7.55 o'clock, I was standing with two companions, facing the north, when we were surprised to observe the ground before us suddenly lighted up, and our three shadows sharply denned upon it. One of my friends exclaimed, “Why, there's the moon come out!” We turned round and beheld a wonderfully brilliant meteor descending almost perpendicularly from about 5° east of Betelgeux, in Orion, towards the most eastern of the three stars in the belt. Its course was slightly zig-zag, its colour yellow or orange, its apparent size about half the diameter of the full moon. It vanished noiselessly before reaching the belt, and left no visible remains. When we first saw it there appeared be a short trail of light behind it. About three minutes after its disappearance a rumbling sound was heard like distant thunder, from the same direction. Whether this was connected with the meteor I cannot tell. If so it would indicate a distance of about forty miles, and we ought to hear of this meteor from the neighbour hood of Warwick.