Dunbar, Scotland — 15 August 1870
Hovering ball of light
- About 8:45 P.M. a bright sparkling ball of light tinged with blue appeared about 45 degrees above the northern horizon. “From the head or ball there issued a tail of the same bright colour…pointing in a north-easterly direction. A remarkable circumstance was that it appeared quite motionless and stationary. By-and-by, however, a second tail seemed to branch off from about the middle of the first one, at an angle of 45 degrees, thus giving the tail of the figure a cleft or forked appearance. “This second tail seemed to come and go, being occasionally detached for a few seconds, sometimes being lost to sight altogether…The phenomenon lasted with little variation for fully 20 minutes, and then proceeded very slowly in a south-westerly direction. “No noise or explosion of any kind was heard during its passage. It attracted a great deal of attention, and was witnessed with a great deal of excitement by the inhabitants of the villages to the west.”
Source: The Scotsman (Edinburgh), 17 Aug. 1870, 2. Two days later the same paper added that the object had been seen by people on the Greenock Esplanade. 481. Case: W435