Stockholm, Sweden: Five fiery disks — 20 April 1535
Five sun-like disks were seen in the sky. Swedish reformer and scholar Olaus Petri (1493-1552) had a painting made by Urban to memorialize the event. The object’s trajectories were drawn up by Dutch painter Jacob Matham. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has a copper plate showing Matham at work on this drawing. Controversy about the event lasted for a century. The painting can be seen now in Stockholm Cathedral. Our research indicates that the “controversy” in question didn’t have to do with the sighting or its depiction but with its interpretation by the common people, who took it as a bad omen after the king converted to Protestantism. Perceiving the painting as a threat to his power, the king had Petri arrested. The painting itself is beautiful. It clearly shows solar parhelia due to atmospheric effects.
Source: Christiane Piens, Les Ovni du Passe (Belgium: Marabout, 1977). Case: W503