Uncanny Atlas
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Claimed sighting

The Griefswald body crossing the sun

WhereThis has no location, and never had one.
DoorSomething Seen
Our judgementObscurity 5 of 6

Postmaster Ziegler and several others watched a body take about an hour to cross the face of the sun. Dr. Brendel of Griefswald, Pomerania, sent in their report.

Dr. Brendel of Griefswald, Pomerania, sent the report to the Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 3477. Postmaster Ziegler and several others saw a body they put at about 6 feet across pass over the sun's disk. They first saw it fifteen minutes before it got to the sun. The crossing took about an hour, and they could still see it for an hour after it left the sun.

Charles Fort retells the report in The Book of the Damned. He argues that timings that long mean the object was far from the earth and far from the sun as well.

From the primary source
"In the _Astronomische Nachrichten_, No. 3477, Dr. Brendel, of Griefswald, Pomerania, writes that Postmaster Ziegler and other observers had seen a body about 6 feet in diameter crossing the sun's disk. The duration here indicates something far from the earth, and also far from the sun. This thing was seen a quarter of an hour before it reached the sun. Time in crossing the sun was about an hour. After leaving the sun it was visible an hour."
Charles Fort (1919), Project Gutenberg ebook #22472, The Book of the DamnedRead the source →
The one rule

Every entry says what kind of claim it is.

Claimed sightingSomeone reported seeing it. The entry records the report and takes no side.
FolkloreA story carried by a community, with no single origin to point at.
Hoax, provenMade up to fool people, and exposed. The test is intent: the maker wanted it believed.
FictionMade openly as fiction. If people later believed it, the entry tells that story; the label stays.
DisputedSomething happened. What it was is still argued over by the people who've studied the record.
Religious traditionHeld as doctrine by living believers. Not ours to grade.
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