Apr 1871
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1871natur...3..486h&link_type=abstract
Nature, Volume 3, Issue 77, pp. 486 (1871).
Physics
Scientific paper
A VERY bright display of aurora was visible here last night, illuminating the greater part of the heavens at intervals with a fitful light. At 9h. 45m., when I first noticed it, broad cirrus-like brushes of white light stretched in parallel bands across the zenith, from below Corona in the north-east, across Cor Caroli, nearly overhead, to about the altitude, and 15° or 20° south of Venus, then shining dimly through clouds in the western sky. My view of the aurora was afterwards confined to an east window; but from a short examination of a clear part of the sky towards south-west, it appeared to be almost as bright, at first, in the opposite direction as in the quarter between north and east, where I had, from that time onwards, an uninterrupted view of its progress. The streamers were white, and irregular in form, rising from no distinct arch, or definite base in any quarter, but they occasionally met and formed a bright corona overhead. A rose-tint pervaded some of them, in the north-east, at 10h. 30m., and presented itself in different parts of the sky until about 11h., when the phenomenon faded, and a faint glow only remained visible in the north. At about 11h. 4Om., while streamers reappeared, forming a bright corona overhead, whose arcs and beams appeared to grow more densely luminous until 12h. 15m. It then showed a well-defined central nucleus, with rays of great brightness proceeding from it, about three-sevenths of the distance from η Ursæ Majoris to Arcturus, white streamers rising to meet it all round, with the appearance of a cupola or dome. While I watched some of the brighter stars through its dense light-cloud, it rapidly assumed a vivid fiery red colour, and a similar bright appearance breaking out at the same moment at the base of a north-east streamer, the fiery glow reflected among the clouds in that direction perfectly resembled a distant conflagration. A wide expanse of brilliant orange and crimson-red light soon joined these two regions of greatest intensity together in one splendid blaze of ruddy colours. This brilliant outburst faded away at 12h. 25m., the streamers disappearing, until 12h. 4Om., when they again met overhead, and formed a corona with a sharply-defined nucleus, about 3° west of the star γ Böotis. The light of the white streamers flickered considerably, as if waves of varying brightness were driven rapidly over the whole phenomenon by the wind. Until after two O'clock, when the moon rose, and their light was weakened although not extinguished, a constant succession of bright steamers occupied the north-east sky between the horizon and the zenith; towards these I directed the slit of a Browning's Student's Spectroscope, in order to determine, if possible, the position of some of the auroral lines. A single greenish line only was so faintly visible in the spectroscope that all attempts to view it simultaneously with the cross-wires of the instrument proved unsuccessful. A simple form of pointer, substituted for the use of the wires in the dark field of the telescope enabled me, however, to identify its position with considerable accuracy.
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