Leipzig, Germany — 9 July 1686
Unknown astronomical object
About 1:20 A.M. a brilliant object, half the apparent size of the Moon, was observed hovering for a full 15 minutes. The observer was “the late Mr. Gottfried Kirch, for many years a diligent observer of the heavens, perfectly well instructed in astronomical matters,” according to Rev. Edward Polehamton, who notes: “A fire ball with a tail was observed, in 8 V2 quarter degrees of Aquarius and 4 degrees north, which continued immoveable for half a quarter of an hour, having a diameter equal to half the moon’s diameter. At first, the light was so great that we could see to read by it; after which, it gradually vanished in its place. This phenomenon was observed at the same time in several other places; especially at Schmitza, a town distant from Dantzig eleven German miles, towards the south, its altitude being about 6 degrees above the southern horizon… Whence, by easy calculus, it will be found, that the same was not less than sixteen German miles distant in a right line from Leipsic, and above 6 V2 such miles perpendicular above the horizon, that is at least thirty English miles high in the air. And though the observer says of it, immotus perstititper semi-quandrantem horae, it is not to be understood that it keeps its place like a fixed star, all the time of its appearance; but that it had no very remarkable progressive motion. For he himself has, at the end of the said Ephemerides, given a figure of it, whence it appears that it darted obliquely to the right-hand, and where it ended, left two globules or nodes, not visible but by an optic tube.”
Source: Gotfried Kirch, Ephemerides (contained as an appendix to the ephemeride for the year 1688). Quoted by E. Polehamton in The Gallery of Nature and Art, or a Tour through Creation and Science (1815). Case: W252