December 2009

Observations of a meteor at Mansfield, 1794

Reference: RB BL 54

2009 marks the International Year of Astronomy. This document is taken from a Meteorological Register kept in Mansfield Woodhouse, begun in 1785. It records various weather patterns including the 'most probable indications of weather' as well as other skyward phenomena including extraordinary lightning effects and a meteor.

One night-time observation concerned an appearance of an 'Aurora Borealis' near Mansfield in 1794. This was not the well-known 'Northern Lights', but rather a comet or, more probably, a meteor, which appeared as 'a white steady light, without any of those shooting streams of the Electric Fluid, which are always seen in the common Aurora Borealis'. An illustration of the meteor accompanies the text.

Accounts of aurora seen in the night sky in the late eighteenth century are common. A number of diaries describe auroral activity on autumn and winter nights and these correspond with observations recorded in Europe and Japan. Such observations have reduced since the eighteenth century with an increase in light pollution, with the resulting effect that the auroral zone has moved further north in more recent times.

See the extract and the image of the meteor in more detail with the opening page of the Meterological Register here [PDF 4047KB]

This document is taken from a Rare Book held at Nottinghamshire Archives. Find out about our reference library here.

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