Bloomington, Indiana, USA — 7 September 1877
Five luminous objects in the sky, stationary
Mr. John Graham “had his attention arrested by a sudden light in the heavens, and upon looking up he saw a stationary meteor between Aquila and Anser et Vulpecula, about right ascension 295°, declination 15°N. It increased in brightness for a second or more, and disappeared within less than half a degree east of the point in which it was first seen. Immediately after the extinction of the first, three others, separated by intervals of three or four seconds, appeared and vanished in the same place; with the exception that one disappeared about as much west of the radiant as the first did to the east of it. Mr. Graham’s curiosity was excited and he continued to watch till, after an interval of a few minutes, a fifth meteor, corresponding in appearance to the preceding, was seen in the same place. The meteors resembled stars of the first magnitude.” A possible interpretation of this observation would be an exceedingly unlikely train of identical meteorites falling directly in the direction of the observer over a period of several minutes.
Source: Scientific American, 29 Sept. 1877, New Series, 37: 193. 494. Case: W446