Report of the Annual Meeting

REPORTS

THE STATE OF SCIENCE.

Report on Observations of Luminous Meteors, 1860-61. By a Comittee, consisting of JAMES GLAISHER, Esq., F.R.S., of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Secretary to the British Meteorological Society, &c.; J. H. GLADSTONE, Esq., Ph.D., F.R.S. &c.; R. P. GREG, Esq., F.G.S. &c.; and E. J. LowE, Esq., F.R.A.S., M.B.M.S. &c.

THE Committee, in presenting this report upon the Luminous Meteors of the past year, feel that the arrangement for collecting this information is far from perfect, as for the most part the number of observers, Members of the Association, who have sent observations are very few indeed.

During the entire year 1860 the number of meteors were few, and the sky during the nights of both the August and November epochs was generally Overcast over the whole country, and scarcely any meteors were seen.

In the August just passed, the sky for the most part was clear, and many

meteors were observed.

It was stated in the Report for last year, that the remarkable meteor of March 10, 1860, must have been seen by many persons, and it seems to have been so, but no observations were taken by them of elevation, direction, &c.; and we are not in possession, even now, of sufficient information upon which

to base calculations.

In the Catalogue of Meteors observed this year, of one alone have accounts by three observers been received, that of July 16, 1861, as seen by the Duke of Argyll, at Kensington; Mr. Frost, at the Isle of Wight; and Mr. Howe, at Greenwich: the three observers agree as to the place of its origin, viz. near Lyræ, but Mr. Howe says it moved towards the N.E., whilst Mr. Frost says its motion was towards the S.W., just in opposite directions to each other*. Another meteor, that of August 6, at 11.15, was seen by two observers; the one at Manchester, the other near Macclesfield, but in neither ease are sufficient data recorded.

The Committee regret that but one account of all the remaining meteors in the catalogue has been received, and nothing can therefore be added to the observations themselves.

*This was also probably the one seen at Tunbridge Wells, at Darlington in Yorkshire, and at Namur in Flanders, and of which an approximate orbit has been calculated by Mr. Alexander S. Herschell. (See Appendix, No. 3.)

1861.

They would earnestly press upon the Members of the British Association the necessity of more complete and numerous observations, noting the times of appearance and disappearance, by a watch regulated to railway time, or whose error from railway time is known nearly; the size, colour, and general description of the meteor, and its place among the stars at its first appearance and at its last appearance. If these particulars were received from three or four observers, separated from each other by some little distance, sufficient information would be furnished to determine in many cases the

8 In the two From 3rd mag. * to= Blue or colour-Trains long

Rapid

10/11 15 p.m. Twice the size of Blue
Venus, and brighter.

Left a streak in the sky Slow; duratio which lingered after the second. meteor had vanished.

distance of the meteor from the earth, its path, size, velocity, &c., and thus render these reports far more valuable than they are at present. The following Catalogue contains a list of all the meteors, accounts of which have reached the Members of the Committee, arranged in their order of occur

rence.

In the Appendix following the Catalogue are abstracts from some of the most important papers which have appeared, during this year, connected with this branch of science.