Upon page 287, _Popular Astronomy_, Newcomb says that it is beyond all
“moral probability” that unknown worlds should exist in such numbers as
have been reported, and should be seen crossing the solar disc only by
amateur observers and not by skilled astronomers.
Most of our instances are reports by some of the best-known astronomers.
Newcomb says that for fifty years, prior to his time of writing (edition
of 1878) the sun had been studied by such men as Schwabe, Carrington,
Secchi, and Spörer, and that they had never seen unknown bodies cross
the sun—
Aug. 30, 1863—an unknown body that was seen by Spörer to cross the sun
(Webb, _Celestial Objects_, p. 45).
Sept. 1, 1859—two star-like objects that were seen by Carrington to
cross the sun (_Monthly Notices_, 20-13, 15, 88).
Things that crossed the sun, July 31, 1826, and May 26, 1828—see
_Comptes Rendus_, 83-623, and Webb’s _Celestial Objects_, p. 40. From
Sept. 6, to Nov. 1, 1831, an unknown luminous object was seen every
cloudless night, at Geneva, by Dr. Wartmann and his assistants (_Comptes
Rendus_, 2-307). It was reported from nowhere else. What all the other
astronomers were doing, Sept.-Oct., 1831, is one of the mysteries that
we shall not solve. An unknown, luminous object that was seen, from May
11 to May 14, 1835, by Cacciatore, the Sicilian astronomer (_Amer. Jour.
Sci._, 31-158). Two unknowns that according to Pastorff, crossed the
sun, Nov. 1, 1836, and Feb. 16, 1837 (_An. Sci. Disc._, 1860-410)—De
Vico’s unknown, July 12, 1837 (_Observatory_, 2-424)—observation by De
Cuppis, Oct. 2, 1839 (_C. R._, 83-314)—by Scott and Wray, last of June,
1847; by Schmidt, Oct. 11, 1847 (_C. R._, 83-623)—two dark bodies that
were seen, Feb. 5, 1849, by Brown, of Deal (_Rec. Sci._, 1-138)—object
watched by Sidebotham, half an hour, March 12, 1849, crossing the sun
(_C. R._, 83-622)—Schmidt’s unknown, Oct. 14, 1849 (_Observatory_,
3-137)—and an object that was watched, four nights in October, 1850, by
James Ferguson, of the Washington Observatory. Mr. Hind believed this
object to be a Trans-Neptunian planet, and calculated for it a period of
1,600 years. Mr. Hind was a great astronomer, and he miscalculated
magnificently: this floating island of space was not seen again
(_Smithson. Miscell. Cols._, 20-20).
About May 30, 1853—a black point that was seen against the sun, by
Jaennicke (_Cosmos_, 20-64).
A procession—in the _Rept. B. A._, 1855-94, R. P. Greg says that, upon
May 22, 1854, a friend of his saw, near Mercury, an object equal in size
to the planet itself, and behind it an elongated object, and behind that
something else, smaller and round.
June 11, 1855—a dark body of such size that it was seen, without
telescopes, by Ritter and Schmidt, crossing the sun (_Observatory_,
3-137). Sept. 12, 1857—Ohrt’s unknown world; seemed to be about the size
of Mercury (_C. R._, 83-623)—Aug. 1, 1858—unknown world reported by
Wilson, of Manchester (_Astro. Reg._, 9-287).
I am not listing all the unknowns of a period; perhaps the object
reported by John H. Tice, of St. Louis, Mo., Sept. 15, 1859, should not
be included; Mr. Tice was said not to be trustworthy—but who has any way
of knowing? However, I am listing enough of these observations to make
me feel like a translated European of some centuries ago, relatively to
a wider existence—lands that may be the San Salvadors, Greenlands,
Madagascars, Cubas, Australias of extra-geography, all of them said to
have crossed the sun, whereas the sun may have moved behind some of
them—
Jan. 29, 1860—unknown object, of planetary size, reported from London,
by Russell and three other observers (_Nature_, 15-505). Summer of
1860—see _Sci. Amer._, 35-340, for an account, by Richard Covington, of
an object, that without a telescope, he saw crossing the sun. An unknown
world, reported by Loomis, of Manchester, March 20, 1862 (_Monthly
Notices_, 22-232)—a newspaper account of an object that was seen
crossing the sun, Feb. 12, 1864, by Samuel Beswick, of New York (_Astro.
Reg._, 2-161)—unknown that was seen, March 18, 1865, at Constantinople
(_L’Ann. Sci._, 1865-16)—unknown “cometic objects” that were seen, Nov.
4, 9, and 18, 1865 (_Monthly Notices_, 26-242).
Most of these unknowns were seen in the daytime. Several reflections
arise. How could there be stationary regions over Irkutsk, Comrie, and
Birmingham, and never obscure the stars—or never be seen to obscure the
stars? A heresy that seems too radical for me is that they may be beyond
the nearby stars. A more reasonable idea is that if nightwatchmen and
policemen and other persons who do stay awake nights, should be given
telescopes, something might be found out. Something else that one thinks
of is that, if so many unknowns have been seen crossing the sun, or
crossed by the sun, others not so revealed must exist in great numbers,
and that instead of being virtually blank, space must be archipelagoic.