Auroræ: Their Characters and SpectraCapron, J. Rand
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Auroræ: Their Characters and Spectra
Capron, J. Rand
Auroras
Have the streamers any lateral motion? and if so, is it from right
to left or left to right, or sometimes one and sometimes the other,
according to the quarter of the heavens in which the streamer is seen, or
other circumstances? Again, if there be lateral motion, is it that the
individual streamers move sideways, or that fresh streamers arise to one
side of the former, or partly the one and partly the other? Do streamers,
or does some portion of a system of streamers, appear to have any uniform
relation to clouds, as if they sprang from them? Can stars be seen
immediately under the base of streamers? Do streamers appear to have any
definite relation to mountains? Are they ever seen between the observer
and a mountain, so as to appear to be projected on it? This or any other
indication of a low origin ought to be most carefully described.
When streamers form a corona, the character of it should be described.
_Auroral Arches._—Are arches always perpendicular to the magnetic
meridian? If incomplete, do they grow laterally? and if so, in what
manner, and towards which side? Do they always move from north (magnetic)
to south? and if so, is it by a southerly motion of the individual
streamers, or by new streamers springing up to the south of the old ones?
What (by estimation, or by reference to known stars) may be the breadth
of the arch in different positions in its progress? Do arches appear
to be nothing but congeries of streamers, or to have an independent
existence? What relations, if any, have they to clouds? and if related,
to what kind of clouds are they related?
_Pulsations._—Do pulsations travel in any invariable direction? What
time do they take to get from one part of the heavens to another? Are
they running sheets of continuous light, or fixed patches which become
luminous, or more luminous, in rapid succession? and if patches, do these
appear to be foreshortened streamers? Are the same patches luminous in
successive pulsations?
_Sounds_ (?).—As some have suspected the Aurora to be accompanied by
sound, the observer’s attention should be directed to this question when
an Aurora is seen during a calm. If sound be suspected, the observer
should endeavour, by changing his position, brushing off spicules of
ice from the neighbourhood of the ears, his whiskers, &c., to ascertain
whether it can be referred to the action of such wind as there is on
some part of his dress or person. If it should clearly appear that it
is not referable to the wind, then the circumstance of its occurrence,
its character, its relation (if any) to bursts of light, should be most
carefully noted.
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