Wonders in the Sky (73 page)

4 October 1844, location unknown
Unknown planetoid

Astronomer Glaisher: A luminous object as bright as Jupiter, “sending out quick flickering waves of light.”

 

Source: “Astronomical puzzle,”
John Timbs' Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art
(1843): 278.

429.

29 March 1845, London, England
Orange object, hovering

At 11 P.M. Mr. Goddart observed an unusual object and reported it to an English journal: “The sky was perfectly clear and the stars sparkled (…) My attention was suddenly diverted by a weak light in the constellation of Canes Venatici, resembling a speck of fog about 4 in magnitude but clearly of a yellow color. I immediately pointed my telescope toward it, which gives small but very clear and bright vision. The meteor appeared as a fog of four stars, with the center of an orange color. From Alpha Can.Ven. it moved slowly towards Coma Berenices, gaining ever more brilliance. It took two minutes before it went out.”

 

Source:
L'institut, journal général des sociétés et travaux scientifiques de la France et de l'étranger. 1ère section, Sciences mathématiques, physiques et naturelles,
vol. 13, no. 590 (Paris, 1845): 148. There is a reference to this observation in Poggendorf's catalog in
Annalen der Physik und Chemie
(1854).

430.

11 May 1845, Capodimonte Observatory, Naples, Italy
Black objects

Astronomer Schumacher wrote to Gauss on 18 September 1845: “Erman sends me a report of Capocci about bodies which he has seen pass in front of the sun on 11 to 13 May.” Ernesto Capocci (1798-1864) was an Italian astronomer. Heinrich Christian Schumacher (1780-1850) was the founder of
Astronomische Nachtrichten
.

 

Source: Correspondence between mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss and astronomer Schumacher.
Briefwechsel zwischen C.F. Gauss und H.C. Schumacher
, edited by C.A.F. Peters, vol. 5 (Altona, 1863), 46-47;
Report of the nineteenth meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (year 1849)
(London, 1850): 46.

431.

18 June 1845, between Malta and Turkey
Three luminous objects rise from the sea

“At 9:30 P.M. the brig
Victoria
, from Newcastle to Malta, in lat. 36° 40' 56”, long. 13° 44' 36” was becalmed, with no appearance of bad weather; when her top-gallant and royal masts suddenly went over the side as if carried away by a squall. Two hours it blew very hard from the east; and whilst all hands were aloft reefing topsails, it suddenly fell calm again, and they felt an overpowering heat and stench of sulphur.
At this moment three luminous bodies issued from the sea, about half a mile from the vessel, and remained visible for ten minutes.
Soon after it began to blow hard again, and the vessel got into a current of cold fresh air.”

The geographic coordinates given in the report would place the ship 900 miles away from Antalya in Turkey.

 

Source: “Malta Mail”, cited by
London Times
, 18 August 1845, and James Glaisher, et al. “Report on observations of luminous meteors, 1860-1861.”
Annual Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science
(1861): 1-44, at 30.

432.

18 June 1845, Ainab Mountain, Lebanon
Two large unknowns

“At Ainab, on Mount Lebanon, at half an hour after sunset, the heavens presented an extraordinary and beautiful though awful spectacle.” Witnesses described the phenomenon as “composed of two large bodies, each apparently at least 5 times larger than the moon, with streamers or appendages from each joining the two, and looking precisely like large flags blown out by a gentle breeze.” They appeared in the west, remaining visible for an hour, taking an easterly course, and gradually disappeared.

“The appendages appeared to shine from the reflected light of main bodies, which it was painful to look at for any time. The moon has risen about half an hour before, and there was scarcely any wind.”

This phenomenon may well have been related to the first sighting for this date, above.

 

Source: James Glaisher, et al. “Report on observations of luminous meteors, 1860-1861,”
Annual Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science
, (1861): 1-44.

433.

7 June 1846, Darmstadt, Germany
Slag residue falling

An object falling from the sky is found to be “only slag.” In several well-attested modern cases when an unknown flying object dropped some molten metal, the residue was also found to be “nothing but slag,” So while not representing an important sighting, the report should not be summarily discounted and we include it for its possible physical relevance.

 

Source: James Glaisher et al. “Report on observations of luminous meteors, 1866-67.”
Annual Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science
(1867): 288-430, at 416.

434.

25 August 1846, Saint-Apre, France
Bright globe emits ‘stars'

At 2:30 A.M. Dr. Moreau was returning from a visit to a patient's home by warm, calm weather when he found himself bathed in the light coming from a globe that seemed to open up, emitting hundreds of star-like objects. This was observed for three to four minutes, after which the display slowed down and the globe disappeared.

 

Source: “Sur un météore lumineux,”
Comptes-Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences
23 (Paris, 1846): 549-550.

435.