Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 79.djvu/201

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ORIGIN OF LUMINOUS METEOR TRAINS
197

Fig. 7. Daylight Train of a Detonating Meteor. Seen from the Lick Observatory, 7:30 p. m., July 26, 1896, visible for one half hour, from a drawing published by the observatory. The enlarged part of the train is the point where the explosion occurred, twenty-eight miles above the surface of the earth.

Leo, "like the spokes of a wheel, three or four at a time"! The radiant point is the region in the heavens from which meteors appear to emanate. Many trains have been observed on the European continent from time to time. One of these is shown in one of the illustrations. It was seen at Leiden in Holland on the night of November 13, 1865.

Recent Remarkable Trains Seen in England

A train which was observed all over the south of England during the evening of August 12, 1894, was formed by a meteor at 10:20 p. m.