Auroræ: Their Characters and SpectraCapron, J. Rand
History
Auroræ: Their Characters and Spectra
Capron, J. Rand
Auroras
An Aurora of July 18th, 1874, seen by Mr. Herbert Ingall at Champion
Hill, S.E., was described by him as an extraordinary one. About 11
the sky was clear; at midnight the sky was covered by a sort of haze
canopy, sometimes quite obscuring the stars, and then suddenly fading
away. Mr. Ingall was shortly after remarking the sky in the S.E. and S.
horizon as being more luminous than usual, when his attention was drawn
to a growing brightness in the S.W., and a moment afterwards bright
bluish flames “swept over the S.W. and W. horizon, as if before a high
wind. They were not streamers, but bright blue flames.” They lasted
about a minute and faded; but about two minutes afterwards a glowing
luminosity appeared in the W.S.W., and broke into brilliant beams and
streamers. The extreme rays made an angle of 90° with each other, the
central ray reaching an altitude of 50°. The extreme divergence of the
streamers (indicating their height above the earth’s surface), and
their direction (from W.S.W. to E.N.E.) at right angles to the magnetic
meridian, suggested to Mr. Ingall a disturbance of an abnormal character.
The rays had an oscillatory motion for about fifteen seconds, and then
disappeared, “as if a shutter had suddenly obscured the source of light.”
[Sidenote: Mr. Ingall’s remarks corroborated.]
Mr. Ingall’s remarks were corroborated by an observer in lat. 54° 46´
6″·2 N., long. 6h 12m 19s·75 W. The display, however, was more brilliant,
and the intensity of light at midnight illuminated the whole district
as with an electric light. The rays, too, bore tints differing from one
another; the largest seemed to partake of the nature of the blue sky,
while the smaller ones, running parallel with the horizon, were ever
changing from blue to orange-red.
[Sidenote: Rev. C. Gape saw flashes or streaks of a pale blue colour.]
On June 25 (same year?), between 9 and 10 o’clock, the Rev. Chas. Gape
saw at Rushall Vicarage, Scole, Norfolk, in the E.S.E., very frequent
flashes or streaks of a pale blue colour darting from the earth towards
the heavens like an Aurora. The day had been dull and close, with distant
thunder. In the E.S.E. it was dark, but overhead and everywhere else it
was clear and starry.
_Mr. J. R. Capron’s White Aurora of September 11th, 1874._
[Sidenote: Mr. J. R. Capron’s white Aurora of Sept. 11, 1874.]
On September 11, 1874, we were at Kyle Akin, in the Isle of Skye. The
day had been wet and stormy, but towards evening the wind fell and the
sky became clear. About 10 P.M. my attention was called to a beautiful
Auroral display.
[Sidenote: Double arc of pure white light in the N.]
No crimson or rose tint was to be seen, but a long low-lying arc of the
purest white light was formed in the north, and continued to shine with
more or less brilliancy for some time. The arc appeared to be a double
one, by the presence of a dark band running longitudinally through it.
[Sidenote: White streamers. Auroral bow believed to be near the earth.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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