Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-12-04
THE RECENT METEOR AND sun.
SETS.
What Professor Daniel Draper Thinks
Of Them.
from the New York Tribune.

Irom the New York Tribune.
A Tribune reporter called upon Professor
Draper at the Central Park observatory yester-
iay To obtain his views about the peculiar red-
ness in the sunset sky on Tuesday. Wednesday
and THURSDAY but more particularly on Tues
day The Professor said: Il do not know that
there was anything more IN those sunsets than
In other fine sunsets. The sky was singularly
clear and there Were floating cirr very high
These are almost entirely p"llicles of moisture
and they absorbed the solar rays at such an
angle as to display the red ray. The persistence
of the red tone in the skv long after the sun
had gone down. Is phenomenon of very fire.
quent occurrence. especially in Alpine regions
where a snow-clad peak will retain for very
long tine pcrCeptible shade of red due to the
sunset This Is ,iue To the cleaTGeSs of the atnlcs
phere. We must not c0nfound these appear
ances with what are called red moons and yei-
low mOoES. 1t one time il was supposed that
this was caused by clouds of pollen. or the fer
tiliZing anthCr dust of plants. floating in the
atm0sJhCre. But il is now believed that smoke
arising from acres oi burning peat swamp
meadow land is lie real factor in the problem.
This IL. III my opinion. the More probable o. the
two. a. the t!;SCpioT6t moons are seen in the
present month. when there Is considerable burI-
Ing in the country, and the amount Of pollen
must be inconSGrra5e 81 so late period Of the,
year. The smoke rises to considerable height
when there is calLi weather. Smoke has been
known also Ia te carried to vast distances. as
In the Volcanic disturbances in Java not long
ago The smoke of the cruptions was borne to
South America. and Occas!ODed redress of the
sun which was at first aScr;betl to the volcanoes
OF the Andes. and the south American observers
began an examination Of the Nest famous peaks.
but found them all tranquil. Strange as it NAV
seem TO explain red sun in South America by
Volcano eruption in Java. il cannot be doubted
that this was the true solution
What do you think OF Prof. Brooks discovery
OF Il swarm of mete0rs near the suns path re-
ported this morning.
Il don't think Prof. Brooks made any cOnDec-
ton between hia meteOrs and the red sunsets
Ii he I'D s0. lie is no doubt correct But i'm the
absence of any distinct observation think mOiS-
ture :; more probable cause than neteOrs. The
meteor OF last night was not observed by my
self, nor have | received any authentic account
OF it, But il is clear that it lett some dust be-
hind it. The bright track which it left in its pas
sage-Whch in the papers was described as q
Tall IKE comet S-Wa> in fact composed of me-
teor:c dust detached BY the friction of the at
mOSpheTe from the surface of the meteor and
rendered EcandeSceEt. These molecules are
usually detached from 80 to 40 miles above the
surface of the earth. and the. sink with incredi-
bic slowness. Like smoke and pollen and other
mense distances, ani are deposited everywhere
They have been discovered oftenest on snow
fields and on snow-clad peaks. and are readily
diStin2uishable from terrestrial dust by the fact
That they always contain schrelbersite which is
compound of iron. nickel, cobalt phosphorus
and chrome. that has never been known to Oc-
cur on this planet