_Telescopic Meteors._—Observers who are engaged in seeking for comets
or studying variable stars employ low powers and large fields, and
during the progress of their work notice a considerable number of
small meteors. At some periods these bodies are more plentiful than
at others, and appear in such rapid succession that the observer’s
attention is distracted from the special work he is pursuing to
watch them more narrowly and record their numbers. Schmidt saw 146
telescopic meteors during ten years. They ranged between the 7th and
11th mags. Winnecke in the year 1854 noticed 105 of these objects
on thirty-two evenings of observation with a 3-inch finder, power
15, and field of 3°. I have also remarked many of these objects when
using the comet-eyepieces of my 10-inch reflector[45], and find they
are apparently more numerous than the ordinary naked-eye meteors
in the proportion of 22 to 1. It would be supposed from the great
rapidity with which the latter shoot across the firmament that the
smaller telescopic meteors are scarcely distinguishable by their
motion, as they must dart through the field instantaneously and only
be perceptible as lines of light. But this impression is altogether
inconsistent with the appearances observed. They possess no such
velocity, but usually move with extreme slowness, and not unfrequently
the whole of the path is comprised within the same field of view.
The eye is enabled to follow them as they leisurely traverse their
courses, and to note peculiarities of aspect. Of course, there are
considerable differences of speed observed, but as a rule the rate is
decidedly slow and far less than that shown by naked-eye meteors. I
believe that telescopic meteors are situated at great heights in the
atmosphere, and that their diminutive size and slowness of movement
are due to their remoteness. This conclusion will hardly be avoided
by anyone who attentively studies the several classes of meteors in
their various aspects. Unfortunately no attempt appears to have been
hitherto made to determine the actual heights of telescopic meteors,
owing to the difficulty of obtaining two reliable observations of the
same object. The only way of securing such data would be for several
observers to watch certain selected regions by prearrangement either
with a low-power telescope or field-glass, and record the exact times
and paths of the meteors seen. On a comparison of the results a good
double observation of the same object might be found, in which case the
real path could be readily computed.
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