Wonders in the Sky

by Jacques Vallee

  381.

  7 August 1806, Rutherford, North Carolina

  Flying things, white beings

  “Patsey Reaves, a widow woman, who lives near the Appalachian Mountain, declared, that about 6 o’clock P.M., her daughter Elizabeth, about 8 years old, was in the cotton field, about ten poles from the dwelling house, which stands by computation, six furlongs from the Chimney Mountain, and that Elizabeth told her brother Morgan, aged 11 years, that there was a man on the mountain. Morgan was incredulous at first, but the little girl affirmed it, and said she saw him, rolling rocks or picking up sticks, adding that she saw a heap of people.

  “Morgan then went to the place where she was, and called out, [saying] that he saw a thousand or ten thousand things flying in the air. On which Polly, daughter of Mrs. Reaves, a good four years, and a Negro woman, ran out to the children and called Mrs. Reaves to see what a sight yonder was.

  “Mrs. Reaves says she went about 8 poles towards them, and, without any sensible alarm or fright, she turned towards the Chimney Mountain, and discovered a very numerous crowd of beings resembling the human species but could not discern any particular members of the human body, nor distinction of sexes; that they were of every size, from the tallest men down to the least infants; that there were more of the small than of the full grown, that they were all clad with brilliant white raiment; but could not describe any form of their garment; that they appeared to rise off the mountain south of said rock, and about as high; that a considerable part of the mountain’s top was visible about this shining host, that they moved in a northern direction, and collected about the top of Chimney Rock.

  “When all but a few had reached said rock, two seemed to rise together and behind them about two feet, a third rose. These three moved with great agility towards the crowd, and had the nearest resemblance of two men of any before seen. While beholding those three her eyes were attracted by three more rising nearly from the same place, and moving swiftly in the same order and direction. After these, several others rose and went toward the rock.”

  The sighting went on for about an hour, during which time Mrs. Reaves sent for Mr. Robert Siercy. The latter was reluctant to come as “he expected to see nothing extraordinary,” but after a second messenger was sent to him he finally arrived. At first he glanced at the mountain without seeing anything strange, but when he took a second look “he said he saw more glittering white appearances of human kind that ever had he seen of men at any general view.” He noticed there were entities of different sizes, “that they moved in throngs,” and that they “moved in a semicircular course between him and the rock.” Two of the larger beings seemed to go before the others at a distance of about 20 yards, where “they vanished out of sight, leaving a solemn and pleasing impression on the mind, accompanied with a diminution of body strength.”

  Source: Statesville (North Carolina) Landmark June 15, 1883. The report was formally made on 7 August 1806 and presented to Mr. J. Gates, Editor of the Raleigh Register and State Gazette, where it was first published the following September.

  382.

  22 July 1808, Maine, USA

  An old diary describes a maneuvering light

  The diary of school teacher Cynthia Everett, who taught in Maine during the early 1800s, contains the following entry:

  “About 10 o’clock I saw a very strange appearance. It was a light which proceeded from the East. At first sight, I thought it was a Meteor, but from its motion I soon perceived it was not. It seemed to dart at first as quickly as light, and appeared to be in the atmosphere, but lowered toward the ground and kept on at an equal distance sometimes ascending and sometimes descending. It moved round in the then visible Horizon. (it was not very light) and then returned back again.”

  Dr. Ranlett, a historian at the State University College at Potsdam, finds it significant that Cynthia Everett did not explain what she witnessed as a natural phenomenon, although she was well educated and had firsthand knowledge about the night sky. “She was the kind of person who would have explained it as natural phenomenon, if she could have.”

  Source: New York (Ogdensburg) Journal, March 29, 1978. The article describes the work of Dr. Judith Becker Ranlett: while studying the diary of her husband’s great-great grandmother, she found this unusual sighting.

  383.

  1 September 1808, Moscow, Russia

  Radiant “plate” flying over the Kremlin

  Alexander Afanasyev, of the manuscript department of the Russian State History Museum, found a document in the personal archive of a Moscow senator Peter Poludensky. “On September 1, 1808 at 8 o’clock and 7 minutes after noon, in the sky, clear and sown with stars, a phenomenon appeared, incomparable in its beauty and rigor, as well as in radiance and enormous size, to anything seen before. As we noticed it, attracted by the loud cracking sound, it was rising in an arch over the horizon, from 55’ to almost 90’. Having passed this distance in an instant, it stopped among the clouds as if over the Kremlin and looked like a long straight plate some nine arshin (6.35 meter) long and half arshin (0.35 meter) thick.

  “Then on its front edge, turned to the South-West, an oval flame flared, some two arshin (1.4 meter) long and one and a half arshin (about one meter) thick, with a flame that can only be compared to the radiance of burning phosphor.

  “Floating in a circle without open fire or sparkle, it nonetheless lighted everything around as broad daylight; then the flame went out, the light disappeared, but the bright plate remained and quite smoothly went perpendicularly upwards, reached the stars and still could be seen for some two minutes and then, without disappearing, it became invisible due to the extraordinary height.”

  A sketch was attached, depicting the flying object. Afanasyev ruled out the possibility of a hoax based on the age of the paper and the writing style.

  Source: Moscow daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, 2 July 2006, and V. A. Bronshten, “There was in a clear sky…(…)”, Vokrug Sveta, no. 9 (2528), September 1984, 55-56.

  Fig. 34: Moscow phenomenon

  384.

  10 August 1809, London, Hatton Garden, England

  Aerial ballet of dazzling lights

  John Staveley reports he saw many objects moving around a black cloud: “They were like dazzling specks of light, dancing and traipsing thro’ the clouds. One increased in size until it became of the brilliance and magnitude of Venus on a clear evening. But I could see no body in the light. It moved with great rapidity, and coasted the edge of the cloud. Then it became stationary, dimmed its splendor, and vanished. I saw these strange lights for minutes, not seconds. For at least an hour, these lights, so strange, and in innumerable points, played in and out of this black cloud. No lightning came from the clouds where these lights were playing. As the meteors increased in size, they seemed to descend.”

  Source: The Edinburgh Annual Register for 1809 2 (1811): 508.

  385.

  August 1810, Meklong, Thailand: Silver entity

  A missionary and physician, Dr. Jacob Hazlitt, reported that he saw a man in silver clothing on a road outside Meklong. He described the skin of this humanoid as ‘gleaming’ and added that the entity had only one eye.

  According to writer Ahmad Jamaludin, there are abduction cases in Malaysia and Indonesia where the entities involved are thought to have stepped out of a coexisting world. The abductees themselves claim that they were taken to a different world “on the other side of our reality.” They were not subjected to medical examinations. No messages were given and the motive behind the abduction was never known.

  When they returned home, the witnesses are said to have suffered the same side-effects as a typical UFO abductee, including temporary amnesia, extreme thirst, tiredness and emotional upset. The locals called these beings the Bunian People, but where the word ‘Bunian’ comes from is unclear. They were said to dress in a similar way to the local people.

  Source: Ahmad Jamaludin, Alien Encounters, No. 17, October 1997. Unfortunately the story is given wi
thout a precise original reference.

  386.

  September 1810, Thailand

  Abduction by one-eyed humanoid

  A woman claimed she was awakened by an unknown force one night and was surprised to hear that the surrounding area was devoid of animal sounds. Something was not right: Looking out the window, the lady beheld a strange humanoid in her back yard. She claimed that the being only had one eye and was dressed in a suit that seemed to be made out of metal. The episode ended with the woman claiming to have been abducted to a ‘palace of lights’.

  Source: Ahmad Jamaludin, Alien Encounters, No. 17, October 1997.

  387.

  19 September 1810, Brezeau, Holland

  Strange globe absorbs water

  A remarkable incident occurred in the Dutch village of Brezeau. The 36th volume of the Philosophical Magazine reported that between 5:00 P.M. and 6:00 P.M., “a luminous meteor appeared to the south, and about the distance of a quarter of a league from the small commune of Brezeau: persons who attentively examined it assert that it was nearly a quarter of an hour in collecting, floating over the place where it was first seen; and that when all its parts had united, it appeared all at once as a very considerable globe of fire, taking a northerly direction.”

  The phenomenon “spread terror among the inhabitants of the village, who believed their houses would be burnt, and they themselves perish.” It was followed by thick fog. Curiously, “in crossing a river it absorbed water, of which some afterwards fell as rain.”

  It is difficult to imagine a natural phenomenon with these characteristics. Its duration is also an anomaly, as it lasted forty-five minutes before turning into a column of fire and rising towards the sky.

  Source: “Meteor seen in Holland”, The Philosophical Magazine 36 (1810): 395-396.

  388.

  20 March 1812, near Manosque, France

  Four entities inside lights

  On the road from Villeneuve to Manosque, seven travelers in the coach to Digne were scared when they observed a luminous ball that hovered over the path close to the coach. The object split into four lights. Four human figures were seen, enclosed inside the objects, which looked like lanterns. Terrified, the travelers chose to stop at the inn of Quatre Tours rather than going all the way to Manosque.

  Source: Louis-Joseph-Marie Robert, Notice historique sur le tremblement de terre du village de Beaumont, département de Vaucluse, et examen des causes qui ont pu déterminer dans un pays non volcanique, 128 secousses successives dans 75 jours…, (Aix: Augustin Pontier, 1812), 10.

  389.

  8 April 1813, Atlantic Ocean

  Shell-shaped floating monster

  As the ship “Niagara” was about latitude 43 north, longitude 65 west, a large hump was seen on the Southern horizon, “bearing N.W. distance 6 or 8 miles ahead, which we supposed the hull of a large ship bottom up. When within a gun shot of it, we discovered that it had motion.”

  On nearer approach the sailors thought the object must be a giant fish, “apparently 200 feet in length, about 30 feet broad, and from 17 to 18 feet high in the centre.” Whatever it was, the floating object was covered with a shell. “Near the head on the right side was a large hole or archway, covered occasionally with a fin which was at times 8 or 10 feet out of the water.” The crew intended to send a boat to make further discoveries, “but was deterred from the dreadful appearance of the monster.”

  Source: Log Book of the ship Niagara, captain Merry, traveling from Lisbon to New York, cited in the Plattsburgh [New York] Republican, 14 May, 1813.

  390.

  25 July 1813, Portsmouth, Virginia, USA

  A letter to Thomas Jefferson

  Carpenter Edward Hansford wrote to Jefferson on July 31, 1813 to describe the object which he and a Baltimore citizen named John L. Clark had witnessed:

  “A Ball of fire as full as large as the sun at Maridian (sic) which was frequently obscured within the space of ten minutes by a smoke emitted from its own body, but ultimately retained its brilliancy, and form during that period, but with apparent agitation. It then assumed the form of a turtle which also appeared much agitated and as frequently obscured by a similar smoke. It descended obliquely to the West, and raised again perpendicular to its original hite (sic) which was on or about 75 degrees.”

  Edward Hansford lived in Norfolk County during the Revolutionary War, working on forts erected by the Commonwealth. In 1802, he was appointed harbormaster for the District of Norfolk and Portsmouth.

  Source: “Edward Hansford to Thomas Jefferson, July 31, 1813” in The Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 1. General Correspondence, 1651-1827. Library of Congress, Digital Archive “American Memory” (image 1031)

  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/index.html

  391.

  5 September 1814, near Agen, France

  Slow-moving, round object

  At 11 A.M., by clear sky and as a stiff breeze was blowing, a slow moving, perfectly round white object with a grayish center appeared at great height northwest of the town. Although first described as a “cloud,” it became completely stationary in spite of the wind and remained in that position until about noon, when it suddenly sped off to the south, revolving on its own axis, and emitting rumbling noises that culminated in an explosion.

  A shower of stones was released, after which the “cloud” stopped again, and slowly faded away. The explosion was heard throughout the region and terrified the inhabitants.

  Source: Annales de Chimie et de Physique 25, tome XCII, Oct. 1814; Philosophical Magazine & Journal 44 (1814): 316 and 45 (1815): 23-26.

  392.

  25 September 1817, Lanuéjols, France: Large disk

  At 6:25 P.M. three travelers who had just visited the roman monument near Lanuéjols and were going through the “Causse de Mende” to reach that town saw in the south-southeast (towards Villefort) a luminous object, “reddish in color, in the shape of a disk three or four times larger than the full Moon.” It disappeared 2 or 3 minutes later. The sky was hazy and a fine rain was falling.

  Source: Le Midi Libre, 25 September 1954. We have not traced an earlier source.

  393.

  6 January 1818, Ipswich, England

  Unknown object near the sun

  Mr. Capel Lofft, an English writer (1751-1824) and Mr. Acton report a strange object near the sun, visible three and a half hours. They saw “a small, uniformly opaque, subelliptical spot, moving more rapidly over the Sun than Venus in transit. Before sunset it disappeared and certainly seemed of a cometary or planetary character. This is a well-attested instance.”

  Source: Capel Lofft. “On the appearance of an opaque body traversing the sun’s disc,” Monthly Magazine 45, March 1 1818, 102-3.

  394.

  3 August 1818, Worthing, England

  Motionless light in the sky

  Mr. Thomas Young saw “a very bright meteor” near Cassiopeia at 11:15 P.M. This object started from a point 19 degrees from the pole at 65 degrees in right ascension. It moved to 17 degrees from the pole and 80 degrees in right ascension and remained motionless for a full minute.

  Source: Thomas Young, “Observations d’un météore lumineux.” Annales de Chimie et de Physique 9, (Paris, 1818): 88-90.

  395.

  26 June 1819, Buchholz, Germany: Multiple planetoids

  Astronomer J.W. Pastorff (1767-1838) observed what he thought was a “comet” close to the Sun, but Olbers pointed out it could not have been a comet. The same day, Gruithuisen (observing from Holland) reported three unknown bodies crossing the disk of the Sun, “…viz, one near the middle of the Sun, and two small ones without nebulosity near the western limb.”

  It is notable that this observation, initially published in Reverend Webb’s well-known astronomy handbooks, has been deleted from recent editions!

  Source: “New planets,” Annual of Scientific Discovery (1860): 410-11, at 411.

  396.

  9 October 1819, Augsburg, Germanyr />
  Enormous planetary intruder

  An enormous mass passed in front of the Sun. Mr. Stark, canon of Augsburg, reported this observation, which is quoted by Le Verrier in Monthly Notices of the R.A.S., February 1877. It was “a well-defined round spot, about the size of Mercury, not to be seen the same evening.”

  Source: “Observations of the transits of intra-mercurial planets or other bodies across the Sun’s disk,” The Observatory 29 (1879): 136.

  397.

  Ca. 1820, Hopkinton, New Hampshire, USA

  Close encounter

  At dusk a young man was followed home in a patch of forest called “The Lookout” near Putney Hill (also known as Gould Hill) for almost two miles by several glowing balls. They would stop whenever he stopped to look back at them, and then resume their movement as he started walking again, but never came closer than within 50 feet.

  Such glowing balls had been seen in the area since 1750, moving slowly in mid-air, so one may suspect a natural phenomenon. The date given here is a rough estimate.

  Source: Charles Chase Lord, Life and Times in Hopkinton, N.H. (Concord, NH: Republican Press Association, 1970).

  398.

  12 February 1820, Augsburg, Germany

  Trans-solar traveler

  A circular well-defined spot, with an orange-gold tint, not seen again the same evening, is recorded to have been seen by two independent observers, viz. Stark and Steinhübel. It crossed the sun in about 5 hours.

  Source: R. C. Carrington, “On some previous observations of supposed planetary bodies in transit over the Sun,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 20 (March 1860): 192-4.

  399.

  27 May 1820, Spello (Perugia), Umbria, Italy

  Unknown stars in a moving triangle

  Half an hour before sunset, while Saint Caspar (San Gaspare Del Bufalo) was preaching in the public square, people saw a cross of three stars in the sky to the east. It came over of the head of the Servant of God and formed a triangle, “one (light) was up and the two side ones at a lower level”. Before this unusual phenomenon the people remained stunned; many fell into deep commotion and even the Bishop, Monsignor Lucchesi, who was present, “was astonished and amazed”.