Wonders in the Sky (72 page)

420.

1 November 1836, Buchholz, Germany
Unexplained objects

Two unexplained objects crossing the face of the sun, reported by astronomer Pastorff: they were of unequal size, changing position relative to each other.

 

Source:
Annual of Scientific Discovery
(1860): 410.

421.

1837, Scarborough, England
Frightening lights at ground level

By a clear starlight night Mr. White, chief officer of the preventive service of the Scarborough station (“a most respectable authority”) was proceeding from his house to a cliff where one of his men, named Trotter, had the lookout.

According to a letter from his son to a science magazine, “He passed a plantation in his way, in which he heard a loud crash among the trees, as if it had been the fall of an aerolite (…) He saw before him what he thought were balls of fire, about the size of an orange, appearing and disappearing with an undulating motion, about five or six feet from the ground; not accompanied by any noise, nor did they move over the hedges; but he observed other luminous appearances shooting across the road and sky, emitting a hissing noise like a rocket, but not so loud.

“The same appearances (particularly the latter) had so frightened the man, that he had actually hid himself for fear of them.”

 

Source:
The Magazine of Natural History
(Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1837): 550-551.

422.

16 February 1837, Buchholz, Germany
Uncorrelated planetoid

Another unexplained object crossing the face of the sun, reported by astronomer Pastorff.

 

Source:
Annual of Scientific Discovery for 1860
(Boston, 1867): 410.

423.

29 August 1837, Tirgu-Neamt, Romania
Luminous sphere

During the night a luminous sphere was observed by local people. It came closer to the ground at dawn, illuminating the fields with an intense reddish glow.

 

Source:
Albina Româneasca
, 2 Sept. 1837.

424.

1838, India, location unknown: Disk with appendage

A flying disk, about the apparent size of the moon but brighter, from which projected a hook-shaped appendage, was reported by G. Pettitt. It was visible about 20 minutes.

 

Source: Baden Powell. “A catalogue of observations of luminous meteors,”
Annual Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science
(1849): 1-53, at 2, 44.

425.

2 October 1839, Rome, Italy: Unidentified planet

Astronomer De Cuppis of the Royal College: unknown body similar to a planet passes in front of the sun. This is one of the main observations selected by Le Verrier to compute his orbit of Vulcan. The object was “a perfectly round and defined spot, moving at such a rate that it would cross the sun in about 6 hours.”

 

Source: E. Dunkin, “The suspected Intra-Mercurial planet.”
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
37 (February 1877): 229-30.

426.

9 April 1843, Greenville, Tennessee, USA
Lighthouses in the sky

According to the Greenville (Tennessee)
Miscellany
:

“About eight o'clock, there was seen in the south-western sky a luminous ball, to appearance two feet in circumference, constantly emitting small meteors from one or the other side of it. It appeared in brightness to outrival the great luminary of day.

“On its first appearance it was stationary one or two minutes, then, as quick as thought, it rose apparently thirty feet, and paused – then fell to the point from whence it had started, and continued to perform this motion for about fifteen times. Then it moved horizontally about the same distance, and for nearly the same space of time. At length it assumed its first position; then rose again perpendicularly about twelve feet, and remained somewhat stationary, continuing to grow less for an hour and a quarter, when it entirely disappeared.”

 

Source:
Brother Jonathan
, Vol. 5:2 (May 13, 1843): 55.

427.

3 October 1843, Warwick, Ontario, Canada
Flying men

Charles Cooper, a farmer, saw something strange crossing the sky in the middle of the afternoon:

 

“On the third day of October, as I was labouring in the field, I saw a remarkable rainbow, after a slight shower of rain. Soon after, the bow passed away and the sky became clear, and I heard a distant rumbling sound resembling thunder. I laid by my work, and looked towards the west from whence the sound proceeded, but seeing nothing returned to my labour.

“The sound continued to increase until it became very heavy, and seemed to approach nearer. I again laid by my work, and looking towards the west once more, to ascertain its cause, I beheld a cloud of very remarkable appearance approaching, and underneath it, the appearance of three men, perfectly white, sailing through the air, one following the other, the foremost one appearing a little the latest. My surprise was great, and concluding that I was deceived, I watched them carefully.

“They still approached me underneath the cloud, and came directly over my head, a little higher up than the tops of the trees, so that I could view every feature as perfectly as of one standing directly before me. I could see nothing but a milky-white body, with extended arms, destitute of motion, while they continued to utter doleful moans, which, I found as they approached, to be the distant roar that first attracted my attention. These moans sounded much like Wo-Wo-Wo! I watched them until they passed out of sight. The effect can be better imagined than described. Two men were labouring at a distance, to whom I called to see the men in the air; but they say they did not see them. I never believed in such an appearance until that time.”

 

Source: Eli Curtis,
Wonderful Phenomena
(New York, 1850).

428.