Meteor of November 15

Abstract

IN NATURE of December 1 (p. 105) Mr. B. Truscott writes of a wonderfully fine meteor seen at Falmouth on the night of Tuesday, the 15th ult., and asks in effect if it was seen by other eyes than his: so perhaps it may be permitted to be said that it was seen in the parish of Llanefydd, Denbighshire, by a correspondent of mine, who writes:—“On Tuesday night, November 15, while returning homewards on foot, happening to look eastwards I saw a long train of brilliant light suddenly flash out of the sky. At first I thought it was lightning. But instead of vanishing it descended with great rapidity, the light increasing in brilliancy as it neared the earth. The night was rather dark, although the sky was thickly studded with stars, but in a few seconds so intensely brilliant had the light become that a pin might have been picked up from the road with the greatest ease. While I was looking, the object that accompanied the flash burst, and displayed a magnificent mauve and red fringe of light. I say fringe, as it would be impossible for me to describe otherwise the shape, for it appeared to me to project shafts of light, some long and some short, like what would be the rays of a great star. There was in the direction in which I was looking a thick wood, and the effect on the trees of the silvery light I first noticed was richly beautiful. But the effect of the mauve and red light was magnificently grand, and to me in no little degree awful. The whole wood was enveloped in a red lurid glare, which lasted as near as I can calculate some six or eight seconds. The effect altogether was like a brilliant transformation scene, and the meteor having passed away, the darkness of the night seemed to be in the last degree intense.”