Abstract
Aurora Borealis seen at Woolwich On December 23, 1834, William Sturgeon sent to the editors of the Philosophical Magazine an account of an aurora he had seen the previous evening. “A beautiful Aurora Borealis,” he said, “was seen from this place last night. I was on Woolwich Common when I first saw it, then exactly six o'clock. It consisted of several groups of vertical beams of pale yellowish light on both sides of the north star, extending nearly to equal distances in the western and eastern directions. These beams presented'the strongest light at their bases, and grew gradually fainter, to their superior extremities, here they softened and gently glided into the most attenuated light and were lost at various altitudes some of which were near to the zenith. … During the display of the fine streamers which first presented themselves about five minutes past six I hurried home to adjust a magnetic needle. It was about half past six before I had my magnetic apparatus fit for observation and the splendour of the aurora had now passed its meridian. I diligently watched the needle and the aurora until half past ten, but observed nothing in the motions of the former that could possibly be attributed to the influence of the latter.”
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Science News a Century Ago. Nature 134, 981 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134981b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134981b0