Wonders in the Sky (54 page)

9 July 1686, Leipzig, Germany
Unknown astronomical object

About 1:20 A.M. a brilliant object, half the apparent size of the Moon, was observed hovering for a full 15 minutes. The observer was “the late Mr. Gottfried Kirch, for many years a diligent observer of the heavens, perfectly well instructed in astronomical matters,” according to Rev. Edward Polehamton, who notes:

“A fire ball with a tail was observed, in 8 ½ quarter degrees of Aquarius and 4 degrees north, which continued immoveable for half a quarter of an hour, having a diameter equal to half the moon's diameter. At first, the light was so great that we could see to read by it; after which, it gradually vanished in its place. This phenomenon was observed at the same time in several other places; especially at Schmitza, a town distant from Dantzig eleven German miles, towards the south, its altitude being about 6 degrees above the southern horizon…. Whence, by easy calculus, it will be found, that the same was not less than sixteen German miles distant in a right line from Leipsic, and above 6 ½ such miles perpendicular above the horizon, that is at least thirty English miles high in the air. And though the observer says of it,
immotus perstitit per semi-quandrantem horae
, it is not to be understood that it keeps its place like a fixed star, all the time of its appearance; but that it had no very remarkable progressive motion. For he himself has, at the end of the said
Ephemerides
, given a figure of it, whence it appears that it darted obliquely to the right-hand, and where it ended, left two globules or nodes, not visible but by an optic tube.”

 

Source: Gotfried Kirch,
Ephemerides
(contained as an appendix to the ephemeride for the year 1688). Quoted by E. Polehamton in
The Gallery of Nature and Art, or a Tour through Creation and Science
(1815).

300.

28 August 1686, Paris Observatory, France
Mystery planetoid near Venus

A second observation by Cassini of the supposed satellite of Venus, which would later be named “Neith.” Venus was a morning “star” at the time, with heliocentric longitude 59° and elongation 38°. The object was estimated to be ¼ the diameter of Venus and it showed the same phase as Venus. Cassini then revealed his two sightings.

 

Source: “The Problematical Satellite of Venus,” in
The Observatory
7 (1884): 222-226.

301.

Circa June 1688, Yunan Province, China
Flying umbrella

A large yellow “umbrella-like” object rose from the ridge and came down again, with many lights:

“In the year 27 under the reign of emperor Kangxi of the Qing dynasty, my brother-in-law Bixilin went to his home in the mountains, 20 kilometers from the city of Kunmin. While staying there, he saw every day at noon, when the weather was clear, a large yellow cover like an umbrella that rose slowly above a ridge. This object threw such brilliant lights that he dared not look at it directly. It rose and got lost into the clouds. A little while later it would come down, always slowly, going up and down in the same way. At nightfall, the flying object lost its yellow color and turned paler and blurry. It disappeared completely when the sky was dark.”

 

Source: Shi Bo,
La Chine et les Extraterrestres
, op.cit., 36.

302.

20 December 1689, England, exact location unknown
Strange object

About 4:45 A.M., a fiery object shaped like a half-moon changed into a bright sword and “ran westward.”

 

Source: “Diary of Jacob Bee of Durham,” reprinted in
Six North Country Diaries
, vol. CXVIII, J.C. Hodgson, ed. (Durham: Surtees Society, 1910).

303.

6 May 1692, Edo (Tokyo), Japan: Three unknowns

In broad daylight, three luminous objects like the sun, moon and a star appeared, sparkling “in an unearthly way.”

 

Source:
Inforespace
25.

304.

1693, Hamburg, Germany: Round machine

A very luminous, round “machine” with a sphere at its center, crossing the sky.

 

Source: Researcher Winkler (in a catalogue published by the Fund for UFO Research) cites Peter Kolosimo. Unfortunately we have no specific reference for this case, which could refer to an ordinary meteor. There could also be some confusion with case 310 below.

305.

Sept. 1693, Bowden Parva, Northampton, England
Unknown, complex object

“The top of it was in Form of the letter W: And had a Lift or String of Light appendant to the lower Part of the W, about a Yard and Half in Length. It continued some time, and was seen by several round the country.”

 

Source: John Morton,
Natural History
, op. cit.

306.

December 1693, Egryn, Merionethshire, Wales
Unexplained fiery phenomenon

A “fiery exhalation” came from the sea and set fire to the hay with “a blue weak flame.” The fire, though easily extinguished, “did not the least harm to any of the men who interposed their endeavour to save the hay, though they ventured (perceiving it different from common fire) not only close to it, but sometimes into it.”