18th Century Sightings
1704 January 8th - 'Strange lights over England' [Desmond Leslie chronology in Flying Saucers Have Landed]
November 4th - 'Switzerland. Luminous cloud, moving at high velocity, disappearing behind the horizon' [DLc]
1731 December 9th - 'Florence, Italy. Strange globes of light in the sky' [DLc]
1737 (or 1731) December
5th (or 9th) - At about 5pm, Thomas Short, an astronomer in Sheffield, observed
'..the apparrition of a dark red cloud, below which was a luminous body which
emitted intense beams of light. It was not all like aurora borealis, for the
light beams moved slowly for a while, then stopped. Suddenly it became so
hot that I could take off my shirt even though I was out of doors. This meteor
was observed over Kilkenny, Ireland, where it seemed like a great ball of
fire. It was reported that it shook the entire island and that the whole sky
seemed to burst into flames.'
[I. von Ludwiger Best UFO Cases Europe]
On the next afternoon, in Romania '..there appeared in the west a great sign in the sky, blood red and very large. It stayed in place for two hours, then seperated into two parts which then rejoined, and the object disappeared towards the west...'
1748 May 24th - 'A letter from
Carlisle, of May 25, gives the following account. "A very remarkable
phenomenon appeared in the sky yesterday at eight o'clock, and continued till
ten, to the great surprise of the whole city. On the right of the sun there
was a large circus, resembling the colours of a rainbow, but more bright,
which was crossed in three places with a flaming colour, mixed with an azure
blue; with streamers interspersed, and others darting out from the uttermost
circle, like a glory. The compass of the whole to the naked eye seemed to
occupy the space of fifty yards. During its continuance the sun was very bright,
the sky clear, and the air quite serene. We had no rain since, nor for forty
eight hours before." '
[Scots Magazine, May 1748+Dr.Robert Clyde, FSR 38-3]
1750 June - 'Edinburgh, Scotland. Vast ball of fire moving slowly' [DLc]
1752 April 15th - 'Stavanger, Norway. Strange, bright, octagonal object' [DLc]
'Augermannland. Spheres of fire emanating from a long, bright tubular object' [DLc]
1755 October 15th - 'Lisbon, Portugal. Immense bright flying globes seen many times' [DLc]
1759 April - Letters from
Stockholm advise, that on 27th ult. in the evening, about seven o'clock, a
sun, about four feet in diameter, appeared to the west,
which lasted two minutes, and cast as clear a light, as if it had been noon
day; and about half an hour before the rising of the moon, there appeared
two rainbows.
[The Annual Register 1759]
1761 November 2nd - 'Procession of immense globes cross Switzerland' [DLc]
1762 August - An account of a very singular phenomenon seen in the disk of the sun, on different parts of Europe, and not in others.
THE 9th of August, 1762, M. de Rostan, of the economic society at Berne, of the medico-physical society at Basle, while he was taking the sun's attitudes with a quadrant, at Lausanne, to verify a meridian, observed that the sun gave but a faint pale light, which he attributed to the vapours of the Leman lake; however, happening to direct a fourteen foot telescope, armed with a micrometer, to the sun, he was surprised to see the eastern side of the sun, as it were, eclipsed about three digits, taking in a kind of nebulosity, which environed the opaque body, by which the sun was eclipsed. In the space of about two hours and a half, the fourth side of the said body, whatever it was, appeared detached from the limb of the sun; but the limb, or, more properly, the northern extremity of this body, which had the shape of a spindle, in breadth about three of the sun's digits, and nine in length, did not quit the sun's northern limb. This spindle kept continually advancing on the sun's body, from east towards west, with no more than about half the velocity with which the ordinary solar spots move; for it did not disappear till the 7th of September, after having reached the sun's western limb. M.Rostan, during that time, observed it almost every day; that is to say, for near a month; and, bu means of a [It] camera obscura, he delineated the figure of it, which he sent to the royal academy of sciences at Paris.
The same phenomenon was observed at Sole, in the bishopric of Basle, situated about five and forty German leagues northward of Lausanne. M.Coste, a friend of M. de Rostan, observed it there, with a telescope of eleven feet, and found it of the same spindle-like form, as M. de Rostan, only it was not quite so broad; which, probably, might be owing to this, that growing near the end of its apparition, the body began to turn about, and present its edge. A more remarkable circumstance is, that at Sole it did not answer to the same point of the sun as it did at Lausanne: it therefore had a considerable parallax: but what so very extraordinary a body, placed between the sun and us, should be, is not easy to divine. It was no spot, since its motion was greatly too slow; nor was it a planet or comet, its figure seemingly proving the contrary. In a word, we know of nothing to have recourse to in the heavens, whereby to explain this phenomenon; and, what adds to the oddness of it, M.Messier, who, constantly observed the sun at Paris during the same time, saw nothing of such an appearance.
[The Annual Register or a view of the History, Politicks and Literature for the Year 1766]
1765 April 23rd - This
day twelvemonth, between eight and nine in the evening, a luminous arch, extending
itself from the N.W. to the opposite part of the heavens, somewhat resembling
an iris, but of a bright white colour, was observed at Oxford, by the rev.Mr.Swinton
and others. It seemed to be almost perfectly semicircular, and consequently
in a manner to bisect the hemisphere when completely formed. The meteor was
not exactly erect, but ascended obliquely, declining a little to the north
of the zenith, and was in breadth about two degrees. It went off between nine
and ten.
[The Annual Register 1765]
1768 September - '..German poet,
dramatist, author and scientist Johann Goethe.. was journeying from Frankfurt
to Leipzig by stagecoach. At one point the rough uphill track was so treacherous
from mud and rain that the passengers were forced to alight and follow on
behind. It was then that Goethe suddenly became aware of lights in the ravine
below them. 'All of a sudden, in a ravine on the right hand side of the track,
I saw a sort of amphitheatre, wonderfully illuminated. In a funnel-shaped
space there were innumerable little lights shining, ranged step-fashion over
one another; and they shone so brilliantly that the eye was dazzled. But the
sight was even more confusing because these objects did not keep still, but
jumped about here and there, as well as downwards from above. Now whether
this was a tumult of will-o'-the-wisps, or a company of luminous creatures
I will not decide.'
[H.Hinde, Alien Encounters 6]
1775 May 8th - At 81/2
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.
[The Annual Register 1775]
1779 June 7th - 'Boulogne, France. Flight of numerous glowing disks pass over the city' [DLc]
1783 August 18th [Click Here for report by Tiberius Cavallo of a 'very extraordinary meteor' seen by himself and others on a summer's evening in England]
1790 October - Dr.HERSCHEL'S Miscellaneous Observations
Remarkable Phenomena in an Eclipse of the Moon.
The 22d of October, 1790, when the moon was totally eclipsed, I viewed the disk of it with a twenty-feet reflector, carrying a magnifying power of 360. In several parts of it I perceived many bright, red, luminous points. Most of them were small and round. The brightness of the moon, notwithstanding the great defalcation of light occasioned by the eclipse, would not permit me to view it long enough to take the place of these points. They were, indeed, very numerous; as I suppose that I saw, at least, one hundred and fifty of them. Their light did not much exceed that of Mons Porphyrites HEVELII.
We know too little of the surface of the moon to venture at a surmise of the cause from whence the great brightness, similarity, and remarkable colour of these points could arise.
Slough, Dec.17, 1791.
[William Herschel, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London for the Year MDCCXCII Part 1]
1794 March 7th - [Sightings were made from both Norwich and London (England) of a star-like light, seen 'in the dark Part of the Moon.' For accounts Click Here]
1798 - A remarkable comet, or
meteor, was observed on the 10th instant, about twenty minutes before twelve
o'clock at night, by Alexander Campbell, one of the Masters of the free school
at Alnwick, Northumberland, and another person. It appeared in the south-west
at a considerable altitude; at first it was no bigger, but much brighter,
than a common star, but presently expanded into the form and size of an apothecary's
pestle. It was then obscured by a cloud, which was still illuminated behind;
when the cloud was dispelled, it re-appeared with a direction south and north,
witha small long streamer, cutting the pestle a little below the centre, and
issuing away to the eastward. It was again obscured, and, on its re-appearance,
the streamer and the pestle had formed the appearance of a hammer or a cross;
presently after the streamer, which made the shaft to the hammer, or stalk
to the cross, assumed two horns to the extreme point, towards the east, resembling
a fork. It was then a third time obscured, but when the cloud passed over,
it was changed into the shape of two half moons, back to back, having a short
thick luminous stream between the two backs; it then vanished totally from
their sight. It is observable that every new appearance became brighter and
brighter, till it became an exceedingly brilliant object, all the other stars,
in comparison, appearing to be only dim specks. The time of observation was
about five minutes.
[The Annual Register 1798]
