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The Leonid Storms - Artistic Renditions

Hello List,

Another very impressive, but artistic rendition of a Leonid meteor storm
(November 13, 1833) is portrayed in a popular wood engraving, which
depicts hundreds of shooting stars pouring from the heavens and causing
astonishment among a crowd of onlookers in the colonial New England
states. The engraving is pictured in many works and magazines, for
example in the latest issue of ASTRONOMY NOW (Nov. 99, p. 52), in Sky &
Telescope (Sep 87, p. 252 / Apr 88, p. 349 / Oct 88, p. 334), and also
in Carl Sagan’s book ‘Comet’.

Some of you will also be familiar with two contemporary artists’
renditions of the spectacular Leonid storm of November 13, 1833 over the
Niagara Falls, or of the 1799 shower as supposedly seen by Andrew
Ellicott near the Florida Keys depicting a sailing ship on the horizon
with hundreds of shooting stars raining down from the heavens [ASTRONOMY
NOW (Nov. 99, p. 50)]

And last but not least, an old engraving showing Humboldt and Bonpland
watching the 1799 Leonid shower in South America (Cumana, Venezuela) on
the morning of November 12 (also pictured in ASTRONOMY NOW, Nov. 99, p.
51. The original picture is from J.J. von Littrow, Die Wunder des
Himmels, 1910 edition, p. 559). The ASTRONOMY NOW text mentions that
such old engravings often wrongly depict meteors with curved tracks.
While repeatedly looking at this engraving, I also noticed something
very weird. The terminal explosions of three Leonids are upside down.
Any thoughts or comments ?


Best wishes and good luck when hunting down

The Leonids
I Leonidi
Les Léonides
Los Leonidos
Die Leoniden

(-: Bernd :-)

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