Ipswich, England — 6 January 1818
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 AS, March 1 1818, 102-3. Case: W346