One thought on “Walt Whitman Meteor Mystery Solved by Astronomer Sleuths”

1. RE: Texas State astronomers solve Walt Whitman meteor mystery
   As a reference to the July 2010 “Sky and Telescope” publication of
   Texas State physics professors Donald Olson and Russell Doescher,
   English professor Marilynn S. Olson and Honors Program student Ava G.
   Pope work publish on the “Year or Meteors 1859-1860” and the Church
   painting. I am
   obligated to point out that at the International Meteor Conference in
   Slovakia in
   2008 September, a poster session was presented where the Walt
   Whitman
   “Year of the Meteors” poem was addressed and the implication of the
   poem
   to both meteor science and Whitman’s interest in human nature and
   pre-American civil war period commentary on natural and cultural
   events
   Prior to the IMO conference a CD of articles was prepared (available
   through the IMO, see their web site if interested,) including the
   article
   “Meteor Beliefs Project: Year of Meteors” edited for the co-authors
   and contributors to the IMC 2008 MBP, by Alastair McBeath & Andrei
   Dorian
   Gheorghe, Project Coordinators (2008 June 15).
   The article in the IMO publication about the 1859-1860 meteor out
   break, pointed out that between 15 November 1859 to 2 August 1860
   there were four notable fireball events reported in popular press.
   The
   event of bright fireballs was world wide, and that the Comet mentioned
   in
   the poem, was Comet C/1860 M1 (III) . The other review of literature
   of
   interest was an article in “Scientific American” of the period
   entitled
   the “Year of Meteors”.
   The initial article (September 2008) was followed by a related article
   for John Brown’s Anniversary on the raid on Harpers Ferry and his
   death
   in December 1859. The Whitman Poem identifies John Brown as a
   meteoric
   figure (WGN December 2009, pp191-194).
   As Alastair, Andrei, and I tried to identify the social effect of the
   1859-1860 meteors display, with meteor metaphors appearing in
   commerce and the identification of villains and heroes. I found this
   contemporary passage for Church, “Church’s meteoric rise in the
   1840’s
   and 1850’s, as one critic has said, was fueled by the tumult of the
   times. ….”. And indeed the period of the poem and painting were
   presented was fluid and dynamic.
   The event observed by Church, Whitman, and others was more than just
   a local event observed by artist on the July 20th, 1860. Newspapers
   and related journals, found the event to be spectacular. Even medical
   journals. From the “American Medical Times” this was located, Vol 1,
   page 72, July 26, 1860. “Remarks on the Weather (from New York City)
   ,” (July) 20 Clear and Hot. A brilliant planetary Meteor Crosses the
   horizon from west to east at a great altitude at 9 1/4 P.M.”
   With the information available beginning in 1859 to the end of 1860,
   the earth’s orbit passed through a series of cosmic dust trails
   (possibly
   the 1860 Comment), as the year of meteors was observed through out
   the world. A publication by Heis and Neumayer (1867), ( On meteors in
   the
   southern hemisphere) discuss a series of fireball (circa 1860)
   observed
   from Southern Hemisphere. An illustration by Lydwig Becker from
   Australia, October 1860 shows a bright fireball over the landscape,
   as
   Church.
   An opinion shared with Alastair, the 1859-1860 event was the
   threshold for scientist and others to begin studying meteors as a
   discipline of astronomy. I know 1833 Leonid outbreak was an event
   that
   began some scientist of the period to rethink meteors, not as water
   vapours, or
   volcanic rock from earth but from outside the earth. A review of
   literature after the 1859-1860 event, finds more observational logs
   and publications beginning to be focused on the study of meteor and
   meteorites. The event of 1859-1860 was the beginning of the acceptance
   of meteor observations.
   Thank you for your time.
   George John Drobnock
   On behalf of Alastiar McBeath (Alastair McBeath
   ),
   Andrei Dorian Gheorghe (Andrei Dorian Gheorghe ),
   and
   the International Meteor Organization publication the WGN (editor –
   Javor Kac )

   Reply