Title: Note on the Meteoric Shower of the 22nd October 1903, at Dokachi and Neighbourhood, Dacca District, Bengal Author: L. Leigh Fermor
On the evening of the 22nd October 1903, at about 7 o'clock local time, an exceptionally bright meteor was seen in Calcutta above the north-eastern horizon. The following extracts from a letter by Mr. C. Little, published in the "Englishman " of 20th November 1903, indicate the unusual interest and importance of this meteor :- "Since the publication of my letter about the meteor of the 22nd October in your journal and others, I have received many letters from different parts of Bengal, and not a few from Assam, one from distant Sibsagar. The information given in these letters, some of it with unexpected precision as the result of careful measurements made the following day, is sufficient to indicate with fair accuracy the path of the meteor from the time it began to glow dimly as it entered the very attenuated atmosphere at a distance of 120 to 150 miles from the earth's surface until the remnant of it dissipated in the intense heat caused by the thicker atmosphere at a distance of ten or twenty miles from the earth's surface."