Astronomers Reveal the Truth About Frankenstein

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's story of Victor Frankenstein's monster is a classic of horror and science fiction, spawning many books and movies.

Mary Shelley was only 18 when she wrote the story.  The idea supposedly came from a gathering with her future husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, her stepsister Claire Clarmont, Lord Byron and John Polidori n the evening of June 16, 1816 at Villa Diodati overlooking Switzerland's Lake Geneva.  During the evening they read aloud from a book of ghost stories and Byron proposed a challenge where each member of the group would try to write their own scary tale.

So most books peg the date that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein to be June 16, but others contest this date.

The author herself mentioned several days passing without coming up with an idea and mentions having a terrifying dream of a man trying to bring life to a cadaver through science and she woke up form the dream to find moonlight streaming through her window.  The next day after the nightmare she worked on her story.

So astronomers from Texas State University-San Marcos decided to use their expertise to determine what night during the gathering would provide the moonlight conditions Mary Shelley described.

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Isn't astronomy fun?  :)