For some time after the occurrence, the 'meteoric
phenomenon' was the principal topic of conversation in every
circle."--_Volume XXV (1834), pp. 363, 364._
Prof. Simon Newcomb, the astronomer, declares this phenomenal exhibition
of falling stars "the most remarkable one ever observed." (See
"Astronomy for Everybody," p. 280.)
This was not merely a display of an unusual number of falling stars,
such as Humboldt observed in South America in 1799, or such as we find
recorded of other times before and since. It was a "shower" of falling
stars, just such a spectacle as one must picture from the words of the
prophecy, "And the stars of heaven fell."
The French astronomer Flammarion says of the density of the shower:
"The Boston observer, Olmsted, compared them, at the moment of
maximum, to half the number of flakes which we perceive in the
air during an ordinary shower of snow."--_"Popular Astronomy,"
p. 536._
This affords us a better idea of the scene than the estimate of 34,640
stars an hour, which was made by Professor Olmsted after the rain of the
stars had greatly abated, so that he was able to make an attempt at
counting.
Pages:
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114