Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.9806
Looking for a special gift? Buy a print of this image.
Meteor seen over Hewit Common near York
Date
18 October 1783
Creator
Nathaniel Pigott (1725 - 1804, British) , Astronomer
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (drawing): 320mm
width (drawing): 208mm
width (drawing): 208mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Plate 20 from the paper "An account of an observation of the meteor of August 18th 1783 made on Hewit Common near York. In a letter...to the Reverend Nevil Maskelyne...", by Nathaniel Pigott,
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol.74 part 2 (1784), pp.457-459. The first of two drawings shows the track of the meteor across the sky from ‘formentation’ to ‘extinction’. This was reversed North-South in the final plate with the inscribed instruction: “N.B. Turn this scheme topsy turvy”. The second shows three figures of the meteor itself: figure 1 “luminous matter collecting”; figure 2 “appearance of the meteor immediately after it was formed”; and figure 3 “the nucleus extinct...” These three drawings appeared reversed in the final published plate. The instruction for this was made by Nevil Maskelyne and appears below the drawing, initialled “NM”. Below this in pencil: “Proof to be sent to the Revd. N Maskelyne Observatory” and repeated in ink verso. Not signed.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol.74 part 2 (1784), pp.457-459. The first of two drawings shows the track of the meteor across the sky from ‘formentation’ to ‘extinction’. This was reversed North-South in the final plate with the inscribed instruction: “N.B. Turn this scheme topsy turvy”. The second shows three figures of the meteor itself: figure 1 “luminous matter collecting”; figure 2 “appearance of the meteor immediately after it was formed”; and figure 3 “the nucleus extinct...” These three drawings appeared reversed in the final published plate. The instruction for this was made by Nevil Maskelyne and appears below the drawing, initialled “NM”. Below this in pencil: “Proof to be sent to the Revd. N Maskelyne Observatory” and repeated in ink verso. Not signed.
Associated place