Points Of Compass Research Articles

Finding the points of the compass

Finding the points of the compass

III. A description of the great meteor which was on the 6th of March, 1716 sent in a letter from the late Reverend Mr. Roger Cotes, Plumian Professor at Cambridge, to Robert Dannye, D. D . Rector of Spofferth Yorkshire

The appearance of the Meteor was very nearly the same with us here at Camb­ridge as with you, excepting that the triangular Streams of Light were not so permanent as you seem to describe them, and the Point to which they all converg’d was distant from the Zenith about 20 Degrees, its Azimuth lying between the South and the East at about 10 Degrees from the South, to­wards which Point of the Compass the Wind tended. The portion of this point of Convergence may be more accurately determin’d, if there be occasion : For at a quarter after Seven, when the appearance to us was in its greatest perfection, it lay nearly in the mid­dle between the two bright Stars, in the heads of Castor and Pollux .