Case file · Cosmic event
Herschel sees Eta Carinae flare
In December 1837 John Herschel, observing from the Cape, noticed the star Eta Carinae suddenly brightening, the start of its 'Great Eruption'.
1837 CE · -33.98, 18.47 · status: official
The account
Over the next years the star rose to become, briefly in 1843, the second brightest in the night sky, then faded below naked-eye visibility. It is now known as a massive, unstable binary system wrapped in the Homunculus Nebula, thrown off in that eruption.