Depictions spanning almost a whole millennium – in chronological order – of comets, meteors, meteorites and shooting stars. (My choices here aren’t in order!)
Leonid Meteor Storm, as seen over North America on the night of November 12-13, 1833, from E. Weiß’s Bilderatlas der Sternenwelt (1888) – Source.
Astronomy: a meteor shower in the night sky. Mezzotint, after 1783 – Source.
Augsburger Wunderzeichenbuch, Folio 52 (erschrocklicher Comet, 1300) – Source.
You can see many more wonderful depictions at The Public Domain Review.
Just in time to brush up before the upcoming Perseids! And other summer meteor showers.
Beautiful pictures and I love the title.
My favourite childhood science book was Carl Sagan’s Comet, for the historical pictures and for the stories of women like Caroline Herschel and Mary Somerville.
I’m looking forward to all the great photos of the Perseids, because I really suck at astronomy shots. Of course, I’d like to see them myself too.
I don’t think I ever read that Sagan book, I’ll look it up.