A meteoric nightglow

The original reports of sky glows during spectacular meteor showers in the nineteenth century leave some doubt whether the observers might not simply have been over-enthusiastic. The nightglow photometric data available for the sole spectacular shower so far in the twentieth century are against there being any noticeable atmospheric effects resulting from the deposition of the meteoric material; calculations confirm previously published conclusions that sunlight scattered from the meteor stream might be visible near the radiant or the anti-radiant but, with the sole exception of one observer of the 1833 Leonids, no reports have been made of such an area of light. (author)