Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1892-07-21
A PEcUIIAR Aurora.
Which Was Observed Over a Large Sec
tion of Country.

tiOu OF country. |
There was an auroral display Satur-
day night, more peculiar than brilliant,
which attracted much attention. The
display began, as observed by the writer,
q few minutes before o'clock, with the
formati n of shaft of light in the east
ern sky. This shaft was about 90 in
width, and, ut its best, nearly 500 in
height, inclinipg upward at an angle of
about 60o, the DETECTION being to the
southwark of the zenith. This shaft
started short distance above the hori.
zon line, at a point few degrees north |
of cast, passing on its upward way close |
to the Y Of Aquarius, and terminating
in the Milky Way among the stars that
form the Cross of Cygnus Its bril-
liancy was about equal TO that OF the
Milky Way.
The writer and those with him were
at first inclined to attribute this appear
ance to the upward flashing Of an cleo.
trio search light from some steamer out
on the Delaware river. But it was soon
decided to be too steady for such a
source of illumination. Gradually,
from above Cygnus northward a tilmy
arch, almost uniform In light with the
Milky Way stretched northward until 1t
passed the north star and could be
traced nearly to the Dipper. This arch
or belt Of light was 80 or 60 in breadth
and seemed to bemadeupo Illuminated
mist or very tcnuous, narrow, lOzenge
| shaped clouds with overlapping edges.
Coincidcntly with the formation of this
| arch, the original upward slanting line
Of light faded ont As it did so,
narrow spears If Illuminated cloud
seemed TO form and move swiftly along
over this belt, from east % north, for
distance of AS or so, gradually fading
out as they neared the cid of their
course. These spears or shafts pre-.
served very nearly the inclination Of
the original shaft, They were 50 or 1O'
in length, vertically, about half degree
in width, and very slightly, If at all,
brighter than the belt over which they
moved, but their motion made them
easily visible. A popularity Of their
appearance and motion was that they
gave the spectator the impression Of
their being merely shafts Of illuminated
mist moving at Il height not greater than
a mile or two above the earth's surface.
By 9,10 p. NJ, this arch was fading
from view, as if it were becoming in
corporated into an irregularly shaped
mass of mist that was then forming be-
tween the north star and the Dipper,
but higher up in the sky than the north
star. This mass moved very slowly
westward until it enveloped the Dipper
completely and extended some distance
above and below that group of stlrs. 1t
was sufficiently dense to perceptib.y be-
dim these stars but they We're easily
perceptible shining through it. A de-
tached portion of this mass afterwards
moved over the little constellation Coma
Berenicis and SO nearly obliteratea
those little stars that they were only
visible after rather careful scrutiny.
As this illuminated mist passed slowly
! over the Dipper to the westward, il
steadily elongated and condensed until
, it swung just clear of the Dipper into a
long shaft of light, similar to the initial
eastern sky shaft, but more brilliant,
longer and possibly wider. This shaft
of light reached, at its best, from Just
above the horizon fully two-thirds of the
distance to the zenith, while on its
= western edge, probably by contrast, tie
!. violet of the sky looked much darker
= than elsewhere. This shaft Of light
u maintained its brilliancy quite steadily
!, for few minutes, looking like the tai
Of an immense comet Its direction wa
> substantially parallel to the genera
trend of the stars forming the handle Of
!, the Dippcr, After this, it gradually
u faded, then divided into two smaller
', parallel shafts, which also, fading as
y they moved still slowly westward
= finally flashed up again almost due ives
! into a long slender streamcr about 80
/" IN height by not more than 10 il
!; breadth, which also slowly faded out
9 This was about $50 n. m.
y With the disappearance Of thiSstreame
y the sky Immediately to the west of tn,
= north began to glow with II genera
illumination reaching half way TO tn
IL zenith, in which there was lust sug
ges:ion of a green simmer, As thi
y illumination grew more brilliant it wa
=, seen to culver very family and irrcgu
- larly, with just perceptiblc motiol
y y suggesting the culver of very distan
- "heet lightning,' At 1880 p. m. thcr
was the formation of another fain
'e streaner almost due wost
10 The telegraph reports that this aurora
y; display was observed ct Philadelphia
~ New York, Buffalo, Rochester, Roe
nc Island, ILL.,, and many other points, L
some of which the exhibition seems I
n have been much more brilliant than
was in this locality.