A Daily Dose of History
Suggested for you ·
3 days ago
·
In the pre-dawn hours of November 12, 1833, the sky over North America
seemed to explode with falling stars. Unlike anything anyone had ever
seen before, and visible over the entire continent, an Illinois
newspaper reported “the very heavens seemed ablaze.” An Alabama
newspaper described “thousands of luminous bodies shooting across the
firmament in every direction.” Observers in Boston estimated that there
were over 72,000 “falling stars” visible per hour during the remarkable
celestial storm.
The Lakota people were so amazed by the event that they reset their
calendar to commemorate it. Joseph Smith, traveling with Mormon
refugees, noted in his diary that it was surely a sign of the Second
Coming. Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglas, and Harriet Tubman, among
many others, described seeing it. It became known as “The Night the
Stars Fell.”
So, what was this amazing occurrence?
Many of those who witnessed it interpreted it as a sign of the Biblical
end times, remembering words from the gospel of St. Mark: “And the stars
of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be
shaken.” But Yale astronomer Denison Olmsted sought a scientific
explanation, and shortly afterwards he issued a call to the
public—perhaps the first scientific crowd-sourced data gathering effort.
At Olmsted’s request, newspapers across the country printed his call for
data: “As the cause of ‘Falling Stars’ is not understood by
meteorologists, it is desirable to collect all the facts attending this
phenomenon, stated with as much precision as possible. The subscriber,
therefore, requests to be informed of any particulars which were
observed by others, respecting the time when it was first discovered,
the position of the radiant point above mentioned, whether progressive
or stationary, and of any other facts relative to the meteors.”
Olmsted published his conclusions the following years, the information
he had received from lay observers having helped him draw new scientific
conclusions in the study of meteors and meteor showers. He noted that
the shower radiated from a point in the constellation Leo and speculated
that it was caused by the earth passing through a cloud of space dust.
The event, and the public’s fascination with it, caused a surge of
interest in “citizen science” and significantly increased public
scientific awareness.
Nowadays we know that every November the earth passes through the debris
in the trail of a comet known as Tempel-Tuttle, causing the meteor
showers we know as the Leonids. Impressive every year, every 33 year or
so they are especially spectacular, although very rarely attaining the
magnificence of the 1833 event.
The Leonid meteor showers are ongoing now and are expected to peak on
November 18. But don’t expect a show like the one in 1833. This year at
its peak the Leonids are expected to generate 15 “shooting stars” per hour.

November 12, 1833, one hundred ninety years ago today, was “The Night
the Stars Fell.”
The image is an 1889 depiction of the event.

In alt.astronomy a425couple <a425couple@hotmail.com> wrote:
> A Daily Dose of History
> Suggested for you ??
> 3 days ago
> ??
> In the pre-dawn hours of November 12, 1833, the sky over North America
> seemed to explode with falling stars. Unlike anything anyone had ever
> seen before, and visible over the entire continent, an Illinois
> newspaper reported ???the very heavens seemed ablaze.??? An Alabama
> newspaper described ???thousands of luminous bodies shooting across the
> firmament in every direction.??? Observers in Boston estimated that there
> were over 72,000 ???falling stars??? visible per hour during the remarkable
> celestial storm.
.....

They were all drunk. It didnt happen.
They cant get here there coz ITS TOO FAR. m = h nu/c**2!!

--
[Streelights Will Nebba Werk! ITS TOO FAR!!]
Women look 'too pale' among criticisms of Australia's first electric
streetlight network 135 years ago
ABC New England, 09 Nov 2023 05:04Z
This municipality in regional NSW was Australia's first to install
electric streetlights right across town in 1888, but it was not an easy
sell to locals.

R Kym Horsell wrote on 16/11/23 1:28 pm:
> In alt.astronomy a425couple <a425couple@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> A Daily Dose of History
>> Suggested for you ??
>> 3 days ago
>> ??
>> In the pre-dawn hours of November 12, 1833, the sky over North America
>> seemed to explode with falling stars. Unlike anything anyone had ever
>> seen before, and visible over the entire continent, an Illinois
>> newspaper reported ???the very heavens seemed ablaze.??? An Alabama
>> newspaper described ???thousands of luminous bodies shooting across the
>> firmament in every direction.??? Observers in Boston estimated that there
>> were over 72,000 ???falling stars??? visible per hour during the remarkable
>> celestial storm.
> ....
>
> They were all drunk. It didnt happen.
> They cant get here there coz ITS TOO FAR. m = h nu/c**2!!
>
What?? Does 'm = h nu/c**2' calculate the percentage alcohol of whatever
you were consuming?? ;-P
--
Daniel