The November meteors
1881-1882
Imagine standing in a quiet desert at 3 AM, looking up to see the sky literally raining fire. This stunning 1882 chromolithograph by Étienne Léopold Trouvelot captures the breathtaking chaos of a massive meteor shower, with dozens of glowing green and white streaks radiating across the dark heavens like a cosmic fountain. While Trouvelot was a talented astronomer creating these detailed observations for the US Naval Observatory, he has a notorious secret: he accidentally introduced the invasive gypsy moth to North America while trying to breed silk worms, causing an ecological disaster that forests are still fighting today!
- Technique
- Chromolithograph
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