[meteorite-list] Year of Meteorrs (1859-60)
bernd.pauli at paulinet.de
bernd.pauli at paulinet.de
Wed Sep 24 18:15:58 EDT 2008
Dirk wrote:
"The comet was most likely Comet 1859(1) - Comet Temple1."
Sean wrote:
"Is it possible that they were not actually speaking of a meteor/
meteorite, but referencing the Wilhelm Tempel 1859 comet?"
Hello Dirk, Sean, and List,
Not quite sure whether Comet 1859 and Comet Tempel 1 are identical.
Wilhelm Tempel discovered Tempel 1 on the night of April 3, 1867 and
as the comet's period is about six years, its previous apparition must have
been 1861, not 1859. He did discover a comet in 1859, the only one that
year. So, like Sean, I think that Walt Whitman may have thought of Comet
1859 but somehow intermingled the spectacular Leonid meteor shower
(whose parent comet is 55P/ *T e m p e l* -Tuttle) and Comet 1859.
I don't even think that Walt was thinking of Comet 1859 because it was
quite unspectacular. What about Comet Donati or Biela or even Halley?
A case of "poetic license" ? ... Maybe
Best,
Bernd
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