Leonid meteor showers
Although the meteors appearing to come from the direction of the
constellation Leo can be seen every November their appearance was
especially spectacular in 1833, and again in 1866.
constellation Leo can be seen every November their appearance was
especially spectacular in 1833, and again in 1866.
1833
Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW, Australia)
Wednesday, November 16, 1932 'In 1833 the display was particularly remarkable, an account given by an observer in Jamaica stating that the sky was absolutely filled with shooting stars which alarmed the slaves so greatly that they were thrown into a state of absolute panic thinking that the world was coming to an end. This display was seen again, but on a less pronounced scale, in 1866 . . . ' [I haven't located the Jamaica reference yet, but there are other accounts of people in various places panicking and fearing the world was ending.] |
from the Gleaner of December 5, 1866
- The Herald gives the following brief account of the visitation of 1833:
- Of the wonderful meteoric shower of 1833, the writer—in Washington at the time—has some vivid recollections. The house was roused between three and four in the morning by the earnest and honest alarm of a negro man:—"Wake up, massa! Wake up, all, and come to judgment! De stars is falling from hebben and de end of de world is come!" A look from the window was sufficient to justify this startling announcement; and on going out into the open air a spectacle was presented, perhaps, without a parallel on this planet since it was adapted to the existence of man. Far as the eye could reach all around the horizon the falling meteors, like a shower of descending rockets and thick as a shower of hail filled the sky. They came not in hundreds or thousands, but in countless millions, constantly in view. It was a phosphorescent hail storm The night was bright, and calm, and yet these showering meteors, as if made from the pressure of northeast wind, descended in parallel lines with remarkable uniformity, at an angle of about sixty degrees. They were of a pale whitish light. Immediately overhead they were extinguished at an immense distance above us, but to the observer from a point near the foot of Capitol Hill they seemed to touch the crest of Arlington Heights, beyond the river. Their general light, an unearthly glare, gave ghastly appearance to objects around us, and especially to the human countenance.
1866
1899
in the 20th century