Date:
August 18, 1783
Location: Windsor Castle, England, United Kingdom
This
illustration depicts a sighting that occurred at 9.45pm
on the evening of August 18, 1783 when four witnesses
on the terrace of Windsor Castle observed a luminous object
in the skies of the Home Counties of England: "An
oblong cloud moving more or less parallel to the horizon.
Under this cloud could be seen a luminous object which
soon became spherical, brilliantly lit..."
The illustration has been done following the indications
of Thomas Sandby, a founder
of the Royal Academy, and his brother Paul, both of whom
witnessed the event.
Source:
UFOs at Close Sight
This
illustration depicts a sighting that occurred at 9.45pm
on the evening of August 18, 1783 when four witnesses
on the terrace of Windsor Castle observed a luminous object
in the skies of the Home Counties of England. The illustration
has been done following the indications of Thomas Sandby,
a founder of the Royal Academy, and his brother Paul,
both of whom witnessed the event.
The
sighting was recorded the following year in the Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society (1784), who relates
what witnesses observed:
"An
oblong cloud moving more or less parallel to the horizon.
Under this cloud could be seen a luminous object which
soon became spherical, brilliantly lit, which came to
a halt; this strange sphere seemed at first to be pale
blue in colour but then its luminosity increased and soon
it set off again towards the East. Then the object changed
direction and moved parallel to the horizon before disappearing
to the South-East; the light it gave out was prodigious;
it lit up everything on the ground."
------------
Note:
According to the Science & Society Picture Library
(UK), the illustration depicts ‘the meteor of 18
August, 1783.' The following is the caption for this illustration
from their website:
Print
showing members of the nobility (King George III?) observing
a very bright shooting star called a bolide from the terraces
of the royal palace of Windsor Castle. Titled 'The meteor
of August 18, 1783...', the aquatint was produced by Thomas
Sandby after a watercolour by Paul Sandby. The dazzlingly
bright meteor was seen widely in surrounding areas of
England and disintegrated into several parts.
Source:
http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case489.htm
