Wonders in the Sky (63 page)

357.

8 May 1775, Waltham Abbey, Hertfordshire, England
Light ball

“At 8:30 P.M. a remarkable phenomenon was observed by a gentleman at Waltham Abbey.

“A meteor, resembling a nebulous star, appeared just above the moon, passed eastward, with a slow motion, parallel to the ecliptic, through an arch of about 5 or 6 degrees, and then disappeared. It subtended an angle of 6 or 7 minutes, and was of the same brightness and colour with the moon.”

 

Source:
The Annual Register
(London, 1776): 116.

358.

17 June 1777, France, location unknown
An unidentified Messier object

During a lunar eclipse, astronomer Charles Messier observed dark objects moving in parallel directions, which he described as “large and swift and they were ships, yet like bells.”

“These, Messier says, may have been hailstones or seeds in the air; but they were more probably small meteorites.”

 

Source: “Observations of the transits of intra-mercurial planets or other bodies across the Sun's disk,”
The Observatory
29 (1879): 136.

Fig. 33: French astronomer Charles Messier

359.

5 February 1780, Bussières, France: Flaming dragon

About 6 P.M. a flaming “dragon” was seen in the sky for 15 minutes, illuminating everyone below.

 

Source: French UFO magazine,
Lumières dans la Nuit
338.

360.

March 1783, Japan, location unknown: Low-flyers

For several days, people reported luminous objects flying north to south “just over the rooftops.”

 

Source:
Brothers
I, 1. No original source provided.

361.

24 June 1784, China, exact location unknown
Oscillating ‘star'

A big star appeared suddenly in the southeast, scintillating. It rose and came down three times. Another star repeated the same motion and was said to have fallen on a village.

 

Source: Shi Bo,
La Chine et les Extraterrestres
, op.cit., 44.

362.

11 September 1787, Edinburgh, Scotland
Wandering globe

About 8:30 P.M. people saw a fiery globe larger than the sun in a northerly direction. It proceeded horizontally to the east, about 15 to 20 degrees in elevation. Then it descended to the horizon, rose again higher than before with short waves in its trajectory and finally moved west and was lost to view behind a cloud, where it seemed to explode.

 

Source: John Winthrop, “An Account of a Meteor Seen in New England, and of a Whirlwind Felt in That Country: In a Letter to the Rev. Tho. Birch, D. D., Secretary to the Royal Society, from Mr. John Winthrop, Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge in New England,”
Philosophical Transactions
52 (1761-1762): 6-16.

363.

12 June 1788, Zamora, Spain: Two large flying globes

A letter from an Irish clergyman at the University of Zamora mentions that between 4 and 5 A.M., “a most alarming and singular phenomenon appeared in the southeast quarter of the Heavens. Two large globes of fire, seemingly about the bulk of a Bristol barrel, were seen to move horizontally for a few minutes at the height of seven or eight degrees from the surface of the earth.

They approached and dashed violently against each other, till some kind of centrifugal force separated them, after which they steered different courses; one moving East South East and the other West by North. As many persons were then up in the town, numbers repaired to an adjacent hill for the advantage of prospect.”

The ‘meteors' proceeded slowly in their course for about twenty minutes. The one on the southeast quarter burst with a crack that might be heard at ten miles distant. The other continued gradually descending till it was lost to sight.

 

Source:
London Times
, Thursday, July 10, 1788.

364.

12 November 1791, Göttingen, Germany
Object in front of the sun

Single witness (astronomer Lichtenberg): An object is observed passing in front of the Sun.

 

Source:
Philosophy Magazine
3 (1899).

365.