The 1561 Nuremberg sky broadsheet
A printed broadsheet describes a clash of globes, crosses and cylinders in the sky over Nuremberg at dawn on 14 April 1561.
A broadsheet printed with a woodcut illustration reports that on 14 April 1561 a sight appeared on the sun at dawn, sometime from 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. It says many men and women saw it in Nuremberg, before the city gates and in the surrounding country.
The text describes two blood-red half-circle arcs at the centre of the sun, with a round dark ball in the sun and blood-coloured light above, below and to both sides. It says globes darted to and fro and fought each other for more than an hour. As the fight peaked, it says, they grew tired and all fell from the sun to the earth, as if burning, and wasted away there amid thick smoke. Afterwards a very long, thick black spear was sighted, its shaft pointing east and its point west. The broadsheet adds that God alone knows what such signs mean.
Wikipedia notes that the broadsheet claims witnesses saw hundreds of spheres, cylinders and other odd shapes moving erratically overhead. Its woodcut shows crosses, little spheres, a pair of big crescents, a black spear, and cylinders with small spheres darting out of them across the sky.
"The broadsheet claims that witnesses observed hundreds of spheres, cylinders, and other odd-shaped objects that moved erratically overhead. The woodcut illustration depicts objects of various shapes, including crosses (with or without spheres on the arms), small spheres, two large crescents, a black spear, and cylindrical objects from which several small spheres emerged and darted around the sky at dawn."
- Celestial Phenomenon Over Nuremberg, April 14th, 1561, The Public Domain Review