On This Day In Space: Nov. 27, 1885: Astronomer captures 1st known photo of a meteor (Image Credit: Space.com)
On Nov. 27, 1885, an astronomer made the first known photograph of a meteor.
The picture was taken by Austro-Hungarian astronomer Ladislaus Weinek. He captured the trail of the meteor on a photographic plate in the Czech Republic.
The meteor he captured was part of the Andromedid meteor shower. The Andromedids were associated with Biela’s Comet, which broke apart in the 1850s.
When Weinek observed the meteor shower in 1885, it was in the middle of a meteor storm. This means that there were way more meteors than usual. Skywatchers could see thousands of meteors per hour.
What used to be a spectacular annual meteor shower is now hardly even visible. Instead of photographic plates or digital cameras, astronomers now have to use special tracking equipment to record images of Andromedid meteors.
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