Thursday, September 1st, 1859, 11:18am: Thirty three year-old
Richard Carringto, widely acknowledged to be one of England's
foremost solar astronomer, was in his well-appointed private
observatory. Just as usual on every sunny day, his telescope was
projecting an 11-inch-wide image of the sun on a screen, and
Carrington skillfully drew the sunspots he saw. On that morning,
he was capturing the likeness of an enormous group of sunspots.
Suddenly, before his eyes, two brilliant beads of blinding white
light appeared over the sunspots, intensified rapidly, and
became kidney-shaped. Realizing that he was witnessing something
unprecedented and "being somewhat flurried by the surprise,"
Carrington later wrote, "I hastily ran to call someone to
witness the exhibition with me. On returning within 60 seconds,
I was mortified to find that it was already much changed and
enfeebled." He and his witness watched the white spots contract
to mere pinpoints and disappear. Friday, September 2nd, 1859:
Just before dawn the next