3-011-535 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Great Meteor on Nov. 27. - track of the Meteor, 1862. 'One of the brightest meteors which has been seen for many years appeared on the night of Nov. 27...the greater number of those bodies fly through space at an altitude considerably exceeding the height of the earth's atmosphere. Their velocity is equally variable, ranging from two to fifty miles per second...Although they appear of such immense size when blazing in the sky, yet considerable allowance must be made for the suddenness and brilliancy of their aspect, which render eye-measurement rather illusive. Their size must not, however, be judged of from the fragments of aerolites which have fallen on the earth's surface, which are generally comparatively small...It has been found that, in general, the direction of their motion is in the contrary sense to that of the earth's rotation on its axis; and the meteor of Nov. 27 forms no exception to that rule, passing in a westerly direction with great rapidity...At the time of falling into fragments a loud explosion is sometimes heard, which, however, does not appear to have been the case on the present occasion'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.