by The Great Christ Comet- Revealing the True Star of Bethlehem (retail) (epub)
31 Personal email message to the author, January 5, 2013. Comet Mellish has been linked to the December Monocerotid and November Orionid meteor showers—see Peter Veres, Leonard Kornos, and Juraj Toth, “Meteor Showers of Comet C/1917 F1 Mellish,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 412 (2011): 511–521.
32 The eschatological dimension of this portrayal of Hydra is consistent with the presentation, in verse 1, of Virgo in terms that allude to Israel’s eschatological exaltation and sovereignty. What we have in Revelation 12 is a war between the penultimate world empire, represented by Hydra, and the kingdom destined to conquer and replace it, represented by Virgo. The opening volley in this conflict occurred in connection with the birth of the Messiah, the one destined to vanquish Satan and his latter-day henchman and to exercise sovereignty on behalf of Israel over the nations.
33 Macon Georgia Messenger (November 14, 1833), as cited by Littmann, Heavens on Fire, 6. Observers frequently employed fiery language to describe what they saw, referring to a “shower of fire,” a “storm of fire,” “the heavens being streaked with liquid fire,” “the atmosphere above and all around rolling up and kindling into innumerable balls of rolling fire,” “balls of livid fire, like burning rockets shooting toward the earth, and emitting numerous sparks,” and “the heavens apparently on fire—millions of stars seeming to fall from their spheres, and the elements, as if about to melt with fervent heat” (“The Meteoric Shower,” The New-England Magazine 6 [1834]: 47, 52; Denison Olmsted, “Observations on the Meteors of November 13th, 1833,” American Journal of Science 25.2 (1834): 366, 368, 372, 382). In Greenland, the meteor storm of 1799 was described as having “the semblance of the heavens on fire above; for glowing points and masses, thick as hail, filled the firmament, as if some vast magazine of combustible materials had exploded in the far-off depths of space” (“Celestial Fireworks,” The National Magazine 11 [1857]: 17).
34 Littmann, Heavens on Fire, 4–7.
35 From the Salt River Journal (November 20, 1833), as cited by Olmsted, “Observations,” 382.
36 Olmsted, “Observations,” 368, 382, 383; idem, “Observations on the Meteors of November 13th, 1833,” American Journal of Science 26.1 (1834): 138.
37 Olmsted, “Observations,” American Journal of Science 26.1 (1834): 155.
38 Ibid., 138.
39 Olmsted, “Observations,” American Journal of Science 25.2 (1834): 372, citing “Rev. Dr. Humphreys.”
40 According to a witness from Bowling Green cited by Olmsted, “Observations,” 382.
41 Ibid., 372, citing Humphreys.
42 Bias, Meteors and Meteor Showers, 43.
43 Ibid.
44 Ibid.; Wikipedia, s.v. “Meteoroid,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteoroid#Color (last modified April 27, 2013).
45 Peter Jenniskens (personal email message to the author, October 16, 2012) suggested that “fire-colored” points to a predominance of red and yellow meteors (I would add orange). The medium-velocity Geminids (parented by cometary asteroid 3200 Phaethon), travel at 35 km/second and tend to be rich in yellows and oranges. Slower and higher velocity meteors can give rise to these same colors. The slow Taurids also have a high ratio of yellows. The 51 km/second Upsilon Pegasids, 59 km/second Perseids, and 66 km/second (high-velocity) Eta-Aquarids (parented by Halley’s Comet) all tend to be yellowish, while the 57 km/second Epsilon-Eridanids are yellow-orange (Jenniskens, Meteor Showers, 311). Further, Jenniskens (246) writes of his observations of the 2001 Leonid meteor storm (71 km/second high-velocity meteors): “I was amazed by the bright red and orange colors of many Leonids, green on occasion.” Red light may be emitted by air atoms and molecules as the meteoroids pass through the atmosphere (NASA’s Leonid meteor shower page “Leonid Shower,” http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/meteor.html [last modified July 6, 2008]).
46 The stars ζ, ε, δ, σ, and η in Hydra.
47 It is possible that a single large meteoroid split into pieces as it collided with Earth’s atmosphere, giving rise to the ten meteoric horns and seven heads of Rev. 12:3.
48 Eyewitness Samuel Strickland of Ontario, Twenty-Seven Years in Canada West: Or, The Experience of an Early Settler, 2 vols. (London: Richard Bentley, 1853), 2:208–209. According to another (Henry R. Schoolcraft), they “continued to be visible until day light” (Olmsted, “Observations,” American Journal of Science 26.1 [1834]: 139). Various witnesses speak of fireballs being observed after dawn (idem, “Observations,” American Journal of Science 25.2 [1834]: 324, 381). Similarly, von Humboldt and Bonpland, Personal Narrative, chapter 1.10, recalled that bright Leonid meteors had been visible 15 minutes after sunrise early on November 12, 1799.
Table of Contents
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Title Page
Contents
Illustrations
Tables
1 “Star of Wonder”
2 “We Beheld (It Is No Fable)”
3 “They Looked Up and Saw a Star”
4 “What Star Is This?”
5 “What Sudden Radiance from Afar?”
6 “A Stranger midst the Orbs of Light”
7 “Yon Virgin Mother and Child”
8 “With Royal Beauty Bright”
9 “Lo, the Star Appeareth”
10 “Following Yonder Star”
11 “Brightest and Best of the Sons of the
12 “The Light Everlasting That Fades Not Away”
Appendix 1 The Chinese Comet Records
Appendix 2 The Meteor Storm of 6 BC
Glossary of Astronomical Terms
Bibliography
Sources for Carol Quotations
Notes
Cover
Table of Contents
Start of Content
