I recall reading in an 100 year old book, that my mother's mom gave to
my mother's dad around the time of my mother's birth in 1908, that
there was such a brightness in the night sky in the (late?) 1800's in
(Eastern?) USA that one could read the papers at night ...note dates
1106
and
1811
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index953.htm
(Reader ... be ware ...)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Ikeya-Seki
Comets can defy all predictions, but Ikeya-Seki performed as expected.
As it approached perihelion observers reported that it was clearly
visible in the daytime sky next to the Sun. In Japan, where it reached
perihelion at local noon, it was seen shining at magnitude -17, some
60 times brighter than the full Moon. It proved to be one of the
brightest comets seen in the last thousand years, and is sometimes
known as the Great Comet of 1965.Ikeya-Seki was a member of the Kreutz Sungrazers, which are all
fragments of a large comet which broke up in 1106http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Comet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Comet_of_1811
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