bpnjensen wrote:


Second, my question still remains - could the event that took down the
telegraph have been an earlier unobserved event, and the second
*observed* flare have been aimed such that it's effect would have been
smaller or unnoticed? Despite my error, 17 hours is still mighty fast
for that stuff to move.

This is not a big deal, I'm just wondrin, 'sall...

Apparently we were already observing the Earth's magnetic field in 1859.
Here's a timeline of the Carrington Event.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...lar-superstorm