All The Greatest Sky Events Of The Past 200 Years
July 29, 1878, Solar Eclipse:
On an average, total solar eclipse occurs only once in every 300 to 400 years. Since 1792, the eclipse appeared in 1878 is one of the only 16 eclipses. It appeared through the rocks over Boulder, Colorado Springs and Denver, and then across Louisiana. Coronal streams extending around a great 12 times the diameter of the sun equal to a length of 10 million miles was shown by Astronomer Samuel Langley who drew just a simple sketch of it. He was the later director of the Smithsonian Institute. The drawings that he drew made the top cover of Harper’s weekly. But Langley must have definitely been inspired from the young Thomas Edison as he was the one who observed the eclipse from a small chicken yard where his new invention called the “tasimeter” accurately measured the heat generated from the corona.
July 6, 1982, Lunar Eclipse:
In the past 200 years, only eight total lunar eclipses have occurred. The eclipse that appeared in 1982 was the longest total lunar eclipse of the western hemisphere since 1736. A extra bonus was added to the 1 hour and 46 minutes of total eclipse. The acid haze from El Chichon volcano of Mexico had only spread far enough so that it could darken a part of the Earth’s shadow. It resulted in a Moon black at the middle and top and deep red at its bottom.
1882, The Great Comet:
During the broad daylight, this magnificent comet could be seen easily as it appeared like a shining knife besides the blazing Sun. It shone a 100 times brighter than the Moon when it was visible at the Sun’s edge. The first ten degrees of the comet’s tail was even brighter than the brightest star as the comet pulled itself away to become visible in twilight. E.E. Barnard, the comet hunter of Tennessee, dreamed that he saw the sky was completely filled with comets; he found that the Great Comet had spawned out many smaller comets.
1910, The Return Of Halley’s Comet:
Halley’s comet has visited the Earth three times since 1792. The show of Halley’s comet in 1910 was the best. In the month of May of that year Halley’s comet had got as bright as the brightest star, and Earth had just passed through the outer edge of its tail. Unnecessarily, many people feared of getting poisoned by the gases. The comet’s glowing tail extended around two-thirds across the entire sky at its closest approach.
November 17, 1966, Leonid Meteor Showers:
Usually about every 33 years, the greatest meteor showers are sent to Earth by the annual Leonid showers. In 1799, it was reported that meteors fell like snowflakes. On the 18th of November, 1833, the night came when the stars fell on Alabama and all over America. The 14,000 brightest meteors an hour woke up people from their beds. But November 17, 1966, the night was more dazzling than all. The complete western states got a best show. All the folks out that night, especially Kitt Peak in Arizona, said that it appeared like a waterfall of complete shooting stars that were pouring down from the sky which were equal as many as 500,000 meteors an hour.
Like it on Facebook, Tweet it or share this article on other bookmarking websites.