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Claimed sighting

The Kattenau luminous bodies

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

Half an hour before sunrise on 22 March 1880, a great many bright points of light rose over Kattenau, Germany, and crossed the sky east to west in a narrow band.

Nature carried the report in May 1880, and Charles Fort quoted it in The Book of the Damned. At Kattenau, near Trakehnen in Germany, and in the country around it, a huge number of glowing bodies came up from the horizon about half an hour before sunrise on 22 March. They travelled level, east to west. Some looked the size of a walnut and others like sparks from a chimney. They moved in a line like beads on a string and shone very brightly. The band holding them looked about 3 metres long.

From the primary source
"That, at Kattenau, Germany, about half an hour before sunrise, March 22, 1880, "an enormous number of luminous bodies rose from the horizon, and passed in a horizontal direction from east to west." They are described as having appeared in a zone or belt. "They shone with a remarkably brilliant light.""
Charles Fort (1919), Project Gutenberg ebook #22472, The Book of the DamnedRead the source →
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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.
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