THE NIGHT THE STARS FELL
LECTURE AND SLIDE SHOW


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"The Night The Stars Fell"

Description: Over a three-night span from November 10th through November 12th, 1833, people looking skyward witnessed what is still considered to be the greatest astronomical spectacle in recorded history. It was November 11th and 12th of that year when countless meteors shot across the night sky, catching many people’s attention and interest. People knelt down and prayed or flocked to churches, thinking that the Day of Judgement was at hand. Historical astronomer John Horrigan will take you back to that day with an interactive indoor/outdoor presentation and also discuss some of the greatest meteor showers in history, including the Great Leonid Showers that were seen on November 27th, 1966 and the most recent star spectacular on November 17th, 2001. During the program, Horrigan, a Watertown resident, will prepare audience members to view the annual Perseid shower in August, in addition to helping them identify some major constellations, double stars and Messier objects. He'll help you locate the North Star, gaze at some major satellites (including the Hubble Space Telescope and International Space Station), identify craters on the moon (including landing zones of Apollo missions) and talk about the SETI project. He’ll also let attendees hear a recording of what a fireball sounds like. A comparison of both Comet Swift-Tuttle (parent of the Perseids) and Comet Tempel-Tuttle (parent of the Leonids) will also be made. A telescope and binoculars will be provided for this all-ages show. The best booking time period is in the late Spring or Summer (for an indoor/outdoor interactive lecture and post-lecture skywatch), particularly August for the Perseid meteor shower and November for the Leonid meteor shower. “The goal is to educate families and kids so they can go outside and look to the heavens on their own,” Horrigan said. “Folks need to know that there’s more to life than American Idol, the Red Sox and Wii. Ancient TV was simply looking up. We all need to be humbled every so often by our universal meekness.”

Horrigan will also present a historical chronology of other brilliant celestial flurries of meteors including:
  • Dramatic Leonids showers (1799, 1866, 1966, 2001)
  • The Solar Eclipse and Meteor Impact of India (May 10, 2807 B.C.E.)
  • The Lyrid Outbursts of 1803 and 1922
  • The Perseid Fusillades of 1839 and 1863
  • The Meteor of 1787
  • Humboldt and Bonpland's Mexican Rain of Fire of November 12, 1799
  • The Balls of Fire and Stone Shower of April 26, 1803
  • The Meteorite of 1807
  • The Meteor Shower of 1844
  • The Meteor Shower and Comet of 1862 (No. III of August 10, 1862)
  • Alexander Herschel's Spectroscopic Analysis of the Meteor Showers of August 10th and the November 14th, 1865 Observation
  • The Hungarian Meteor Downpour of June 9, 1866
  • The Meteor Shower of November, 1866
  • The Arago "Splendid" Meteor Shower of November 14, 1867
  • The Siasconset, Nantucket Meteor of June 1, 1868
  • Secchi's Observations of the Meteor Shower of November 1868
  • The November Star Shower of 1869
  • The Giacobini Meteor Shower of October, 1933
  • The Great Leonid Meteor Shower of 1966
  • The Piezoelectric Fires of Messina, Italy (February 10, 2004)
  • The Peruvian Meteorite (September 15, 2007)
  • The Great Finnish Superbolide of September 28, 2007.





    • IMAGES





  • People were drawn out of their homes and looked up at the countless meteors that were streaking across the heavens during the early hours of November 12th, 1833.






  • The sky was ablaze with sizzling shooting stars and spectacular bolides during the early hours of November 12th, 1833.






  • The Leonids meteor shower is the result of the Earth passing through Comet Tempel-Tuttle's tail.






  • The Night the Stars Fell in 1833 as seen from Niagara Falls.






  • The early morning sky of November 12th, 1833 as seen from Florida.






  • An animation taken from the great Leonid falling star fusillade of November 17th, 2001





    THIS LECTURE HAS BEEN PERFORMED FOR:


  • Organization: South Shore Astronomy Society
  • Contact: Paul Grueter
  • Date: May 2nd, 2009
  • Location: Hanover, Massachusetts
  • Email: click to email

  • LISTEN TO THIS LECTURE right click - Save Target As - to download

    Running Time: 34 minutes Size: 32 MB





  • Organization: The New England History Festival
  • Contact: John Horrigan
  • Date: November 15th, 2008
  • Location: Hibernian Hall at Watertown, Massachusetts
  • Email: click to email

  • WATCH THIS LECTURE (begins at 26:15) right click - Save Target As - to download

    Running Time: 5 minutes (this is an abbreviated version!)





  • Organization: South Shore Natural Science Center of Massachusetts
  • Contact: Judy Azanow
  • Date: August 13th, 2008
  • Location: Norwell, Massachusetts at the South Shore Natural Science Center
  • Email: click to email

  • LISTEN TO THIS LECTURE right click - Save Target As - to download

    Running Time: 40 minutes Size: 32 MB





    ADDITIONAL AUDIO RECORDINGS:


    THE GREAT SEPTEMBER COMET (1882) right click - Save Target As - to download

    Recorded on December 21, 2008 at Watertown, Massachusetts. John reads from the New York Times of December 17th, 1882 about the odd behavior of a bright comet over the skies of Hartford, Connecticut on December 3th, 1882. 1 minute and 3 seconds; 1 MB


    THE AURORA BOREALIS OF 1818 right click - Save Target As - to download

    Recorded on December 14, 2008 at Watertown, Massachusetts. John reads about sailors who witness a bright and vivid aurora borealis in November of 1818 where a compass could be read on deck due to the luminosity. 1:33; 2 MB


    THE GREAT AURORA BOREALIS OF AUGUST, 1817 right click - Save Target As - to download

    Recorded on December 14, 2008 at Watertown, Massachusetts. John reads about a spectacular aurora borealis that was closely observed from the Shetland Islands in August of 1817. 3:42 3 MB


    THE AURORA BOREALIS OF SEPTEMBER, 1817 right click - Save Target As - to download

    Recorded on December 14, 2008 at Watertown, Massachusetts. John reads about a vivd aurora borealis that was observed and heard from the Shetland Islands on September 6th, 1817. 2:03; 2 MB


    THE METEORITE OF 1807 right click - Save Target As - to download

    Recorded on December 28th, 2008 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. John reads about a bolide that streaked across Western New England skies just before dawn on December 14th, 1807. Time: 3:54 Size: 4 MB


    THE METEOR OF 1787 right click - Save Target As - to download

    Recorded on December 5th, 2008 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. John reads from Sidney Perley's Historic Storms of New England about a bright bolide that streaked across New England skies on August 30th, 1787. Time: 5:48 Size: 5 MB


    THE AURORA BOREALIS OF 1740 right click - Save Target As - to download

    Recorded on December 14, 2008 at Watertown, Massachusetts. John reads about an aurora borealis that was observed by Celsius and an associate in 1740 where electromagnetic interference was detected on a compass. 3:25; 3 MB


    THE AURORA BOREALIS OF 1726 right click - Save Target As - to download

    Recorded on January 2nd, 2008 in Watertown, Massachusetts. John reads about an Aurora Borealis of 1726 and 1716 (that was seen by Edmund Halley).


    THE GREAT AURORA BOREALIS OF 1719 right click - Save Target As - to download

    Recorded on January 3rd, 2007 in Watertown, Massachusetts. John reads from Sidney Perley's Historic Storms of New England about a rare and spectacular display of the Northern Lights as glimpsed by residents all over New England in 1719.3:00, 3 MB






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