Wonders in the Sky (80 page)

The grandmother of Lars Lillevold saw a flying object in the sky. “Somebody” aboard the object beckoned to her.

 

Source: J. S. Krogh,
The Hessdalen Report
(CENAP Rept, 1985), 11.

479.

22 March 1870, Atlantic Ocean: Circle with five arms

On a very clear day, with the wind blowing from the north-northeast, Captain Frederick William Banner and his crew of the American bark “Lady of the Lake” observed an object at 6:30 P.M. in the south-southeast. The ship was located about halfway between Senegal and Natal, Brazil, at latitude 5.47 N and longitude 27.52 W.

The object was described as “a circular cloud” light gray in color with a semicircle near the center and four arm-like appendages reaching from the center to the edge of the circle. Banner noted that “from the center to about 6 degrees beyond the circle was a fifth ray, broader and more distinct than the others, with a curved end.”

The object moved to the northeast, much lower than the cloud cover. It was last seen at 7:20 P.M. about 30 degrees above the horizon.

 

Source:
Quarterly Journal of the Meteorological Society
, vol.1, new series, No.6 (April 1873): 157.

480.

15 August 1870, Dunbar, Scotland
Hovering ball of light

About 8:45 P.M. a bright sparkling ball of light tinged with blue appeared about 45 degrees above the northern horizon.

“From the head or ball there issued a tail of the same bright colour…pointing in a north-easterly direction. A remarkable circumstance was that it appeared quite motionless and stationary. By-and-by, however, a second tail seemed to branch off from about the middle of the first one, at an angle of 45 degrees, thus giving the tail of the figure a cleft or forked appearance.

“This second tail seemed to come and go, being occasionally detached for a few seconds, sometimes being lost to sight altogether…The phenomenon lasted with little variation for fully 20 minutes, and then proceeded very slowly in a south-westerly direction.

“No noise or explosion of any kind was heard during its passage. It attracted a great deal of attention, and was witnessed with a great deal of excitement by the inhabitants of the villages to the west.”

 

Source:
The Scotsman
(Edinburgh), 17 Aug. 1870, 2. Two days later the same paper added that the object had been seen by people on the Greenock Esplanade.

481.

26 September 1870, Berlin, Germany: Slow transit

“As I was last night examining the constellation Lyra through my 4
¹
/2-inch achromatic, with a power of 46, I observed a luminous object, with a distinct comet-like tail, pass slowly through the field of my glass, apparently starting from Vega and falling in the direction of Epsilon Lyræ. The hour by my watch was 12:15, Berlin time. The time occupied by this object in its transit across the disc of the glass was about 30 seconds, but before it had reached its edge it disappeared suddenly from view. I at first thought it was a falling star, but on reflection it appeared to me that a falling star would never have remained so long visible in the telescopic field.”

 

Source: Mr. Barbazon's letter to the editor of
London Times
, 30 Sept. 1870, 9.

482.

2 August 1871, Marseille, France
Magnificent red object

Camille Flammarion reports an observation made by Mr. Coggia, also the discoverer of a comet. At 10:43 P.M. he observed a long-duration “bolide” that could not have been a classical meteor, given its slow rate of progression in the sky. He described it as “a magnificent red object.” It moved eastward, slowly, clocked for no less than nine minutes. It stopped, moved north, and was stationary again at 10:59. It turned eastward again and was lost to sight at 11:03 P.M.

 

Source: Coggia. “Observation d'un bolide, faite à Observatoire de Marseille le 1er août,”
Comptes Rendus
73 (1871): 397-8.

483.

31 August 1872, Rome, Italy: Slow sky object

French astronomer and author Camille Flammarion notes another observation of a slow-moving object that could not have been a meteor, given its trajectory.

 

Source: Flammarion,
Bradytes
, op. cit., 135.

484.

2 June 1873, Paris, France: Three round objects

Astronomers from Paris observatory are reported to have observed three round bodies evolving slowly at an altitude estimated at 80 km, leaving no trail.

 

Source:
Le Journal du Ciel
, unknown date and issue number.

485.

Ca. 30 August 1873, Brussels and Ste-Gudule, Belgium
Starlike mystery

At 8 P.M. an object was seen rising above the horizon in a clear sky. It was starlike, mounted higher and higher for two minutes, and then disappeared suddenly.

 

Source: “Le météore de Bruxelles,”
Nature
2 (Paris, Sept. 13 1873): 239.

486.

30 November 1873, Poissy, France: Slow transit

Several observers tracked a maneuvering object, red like Mars in color. It was in the sky for 10 minutes. They first saw it in the North above the Big Dipper, then it approached the star ‘gamma' without touching it, moved away on several curves and disappeared in the west. Camille Flammarion and Mr. Vinot, editor of
Journal du Ciel
, later made inquiries that confirmed the sighting.