Wonders in the Sky (71 page)

A ball of bright light accompanied by “falling stars” hovered for 15 minutes. Our primary source is based on a letter received from Bruneck (Tyrol, Germany). While it is true the phenomenon occurred at the usual time of the Leonids meteor shower, the event does not naturally involve a ball of light suspended in the sky for a quarter of an hour, so the case merits our attention.

 

Source:
The Annual Register or a view of the History, Politics and Literature of the year 1832
(London, 1833): 444-445.

412.

16 March 1833, North Carolina
A very slow “meteor” changes course

At 6:35 P.M., during twilight, a man observed an object as bright as Venus, about the same elevation but a little to the right of it. It was running in a northerly direction until it changed course, running parallel to the horizon. It assumed a serpentine shape and became stationary extending over 12 to 15 degrees and retaining its brilliance for about two minutes. The witness reports: “It continued gradually to fade, appearing more and more like a thin whitish cloud; and at 6:40 the last vestige of it disappeared, being visible just 5 minutes.”

 

Source: Boston (Mass.)
Investigator
, 17 May 1833.

413.

13 November 1833, Niagara Falls, N.Y., USA
Hovering square

A large luminous square object was observed in the sky for an hour. It remained stationary, and then went away slowly.

 

Source:
American Journal of Science
25: 391.

414.

1834, Cologne (Köln), Germany
Bright object splits in two

Bright object flying NE-N parallel to the horizon, reappeared and split in two.

 

Source: François Arago,
Astronomie Populaire
, vol. IV (Paris, 1840): 266.

415.

11 May 1835, Sicily, Italy
Astronomer's sighting

Unknown luminous object reported by astronomer Cacciatore. It was observed on four consecutive days.

“Cacciatore noted what he first believed was an eighth magnitude star on May 11, 1835; but, with his next observation, on May 14, 1835, its position had changed relative to another star, and he thought the object either a comet or planet beyond Uranus. Clouded skies prevented further observations until June 2, 1835; but, by then, the object had been lost.”

 

Source: “Supposed new planet,”
American Journal of Science
, S. 1, 31 (1837): 158-9, and “Cacciatore's supposed planet of 1835,”
Nature
18 (July 4, 1878): 261.

416.

6 October 1835, Cosenza, Italy
Maneuvering pyramid

A pyramid-shaped meteor appears and heads off towards a mountain, leaving a “gloomy tail.” It first appeared as a lighted object seen flying West of Cosenza. It rose into the air and changed shape, leaving a vaporous trail, moving slowly towards the south. It followed a parabolic curve and disappeared towards Fiumefreddo harbor.

 

Source: “Casistica dei Fenomeni Straordinari” in
Orizonti Sconosciuti
5, “Periodo: 1819-1857” (1976); Nicola Leoni,
Della Magna Grecia e delle tre Calabrie
(Napoli, 1844), 325-326.

417.

12 January 1836, Cherbourg, France
Spinning disk whistles

A “luminous body, seemingly two-thirds the size of the moon” was witnessed at 6:30 P.M. “Central to it there seemed to be a dark cavity.” The object was traveling at around half a mile per second at an altitude of 1000 feet or so and seemed to rotate on its axis. It cast shadows on the ground as it whistled past.

 

Source:
Rept. British Assoc. for the Advancement of Science
77 (1860). The object was not ‘doughnut-shaped' as many have written.

418.

1 July 1836, Szeged, Hungary
Light globes and a lady in white

Globular lights, poltergeist effects and apparitions of an entity resembling “a lady in white” and a dwarf-sized Franciscan monk. The case mainly concerns a so-called haunted house and objects being thrown around by unseen hands. Such manifestations are not uncommon in ufological literature and have been related by some researchers to the abduction phenomenon.

 

Source: The story comes from a letter by a Dr. V. Stantsky which was sent to Justinius Kerner and published in the latter's periodical:
Magikon, Archive für beobachtungen aus dem Gebiete der Geisterkunde und des magnetischen und magischen Lebens
, vol. 3 (Stuttgart, 1846), 223-237; William Howitt, “Throwing of Stones and Other Substances by Spirits,”
The Spiritual Magazine
, vol. VI, 3 (Feb. 1865): 55-56.

419.

8 July 1836, Saratov Province, Russia
Hovering globe

At 10 P.M. there appeared, almost on the horizon to the north, a globe-shaped whitish mass as large as the moon; for several minutes it hovered in the air, after which it slowly descended to the ground and disappeared, leaving a zigzag trail.

 

Source: Mikhail Gershtein,
Potu storonu NLO
(Beyond the other side of UFOs) (Moscow: Dilya ed., 2002), 159, citing
Utkin S.NLO 200 let nazad?
(UFO 200 years ago?) in the newspaper
Zarya Molodezhi
, Saratov, 3 Feb. 1990.