Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

Between the hours of nine and ten in the evening, there was seen here a very remarkable phenomenon. The air being very calm and clear, except in the north, where a black cloud, the middle whereof was near N. by W., seemed to cover a sixth part of the horizon. The upper extremity of this cloud seemed as perfect an arch of a circle as a rainbow, and edged round with colours nearly the same, the middle of it being about eight degrees or ten degrees in altitude. Round this edge issued out in all parts very bright rays, like those of the sun passing betwixt two clouds or a comet’s tail, but giving a light so clear that some who saw it affirm they could have read thereby a small print. These rays, from their first appearance, did shoot out further and further gradually, till some in the middle were judged to extend as high as the pole star, but, what was more remarkable, they were in a continual rapid motion, as if the cloud, turning upon a centre, had carried them along with it from west to east with so great a velocity that the ray which seemed to ascend in the west in little more than a minute’s time would be hurried to the eastern part of the cloud. This continued about seven or eight minutes, and the rays seemed to disappear about three or four seconds, but return again for four or five seconds’ space, but not to the same brightness and length as before, and then suddenly vanish, so that the duration of the rays was but about a quarter of an hour, but the cloud still remained, and a considerable light above it, which descended gradually till about half an hour after the cloud wholly disappeared. But the light remained two hours or more till the moon was risen, whose shining did not presently obscure it. I watched it till eleven o’clock, and then observed it was moved considerably more eastward, but the brightness was much diminished. I know not what to judge hereof. At first was ready to conclude ’twas only some vapours ascending from a river at three or four miles distance from us, whose course is answerable to the motion of the rays directly over which it appeared, since over this river it is usual to see vapours hang like thick clouds many summer mornings, but have since heard that the same was observed many miles beyond in the north, and have reason to believe it was much more considerable further northwards.

Comment

Comment

Flamsteed replies on 8 April 1703, to which Sharp replies on 29 June 1703:

I perceive it was through my misapprehension that I mentioned the colours, for he affirms that he did not observe any, neither near the black cloud where the light was more resplendent and intense nor in any of the rays, and I am very much satisfied you put me about this further inquiry lest the mistake should be dispersed and perpetuated.

Flamsteed saw the great display of aurora borealis on 6 March 1716, but Sharp was indoors and unaware, and had his report from a neighbour walking home from Bradford:

It seemed it began about or before 7 o’clock, the streams of light were most brilliant and splendid from that time till after 8, but the light now seemed so strong and clear that after about 10 and 11 he could discern the time when out of doors by his watch, but he did not observe any colors, neither did any that I discoursed with except some fanciful ignorant persons who ridiculously imagined they saw men in red coats, which I presume were nothing but small clouds passing over the enlightened parts of orbs. And, indeed, every one of the same ignorant persons who saw it gave different accounts of it according to their several fancies, which I gave little regard to, but all conclude the light continued very remarkable till morning, and several affirm that near morning it lightened very frequently. The whole country, however, was strangely alarmed therewith, but that which seems most strange to me was that it should be seen at the same instant at places so far distant, which must necessarily infer its vast height in the air, exceeding as I can conceive, the ordinary estimated height of the atmosphere. It was indeed observed here that the verge of the black cloud whence the streams of light issued was a great height, so that they extended near to the zenith, which might be the reason it was so visible in the city, from whence we had an account of it in the newspapers, and in towns where the streets are narrow and the houses high.

John Hobson of Dodworth, Barnsley, records the aurora borealis of 8 October 1726 (Hobson 1877).

Something to say? Get in touch

Original

[Letter to John Flamsteed dated 30 March 1703]

Though news be scarce in these parts, I send you a piece I presume not common. The 24th inst., between the hours of nine and ten in the evening, there was seen here a very remarkable phenomenon. The air being very calm and clear, except in the north, where a black cloud, the middle whereof was near N. by W., seemed to cover a sixth part of the horizon. The upper extremity of this cloud seemed as perfect an arch of a circle as a rainbow, and edged round with colours nearly the same [rectified in a June letter], the middle of it being about eight degrees or ten degrees in altitude. Round this edge issued out in all parts very bright rays, like those of the sun passing betwixt two clouds or a comet’s tail, but giving a light so clear that some who saw it affirm they could have read thereby a small print. These rays, from their first appearance, did shoot out further and further gradually, till some in the middle were judged to extend as high as the pole star, but, what was more remarkable, they were in a continual rapid motion, as if the cloud, turning upon a centre, had carried them along with it from west to east with so great a velocity that the ray which seemed to ascend in the west in little more than a minute’s time would be hurried to the eastern part of the cloud. This continued about seven or eight minutes, and the rays seemed to disappear about three or four seconds, but return again for four or five seconds’ space, but not to the same brightness and length as before, and then suddenly vanish, so that the duration of the rays was but about a quarter of an hour, but the cloud still remained, and a considerable light above it, which descended gradually till about half an hour after the cloud wholly disappeared. But the light remained two hours or more till the moon was risen, whose shining did not presently obscure it. I watched it till eleven o’clock, and then observed it was moved considerably more eastward, but the brightness was much diminished. I did not indeed see it myself when clearest, but received most of this account from an intelligent person of the same family, being a physician and philosophical, not at all credulous or fanciful, but rather the contrary, who would have been too apt to have ridiculed such a thing as a fancy had he not accidentally been abroad at that instant, and so a spectator of the whole. I know not what to judge hereof. At first was ready to conclude ’twas only some vapours ascending from a river at three or four miles distance from us, whose course is answerable to the motion of the rays directly over which it appeared, since over this river it is usual to see vapours hang like thick clouds many summer mornings, but have since heard that the same was observed many miles beyond in the north, and have reason to believe it was much more considerable further northwards.

Would gladly know your sentiments concerning this, whether such a thing has ever been taken notice of. To me it seems new and strange, having never, that I remember, heard or read of anything like it.

We have had very bad weather ever since till this day, which has been tolerably fair. What else may be the consequence time may discover.

602 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Astronomy (6) ·
• 📌Bradford (72) ·
• Flamsteed, John (1646-1719) (4), the first Astronomer Royal, prepared a 3,000-star catalogue, Catalogus Britannicus, and a star atlas called Atlas Coelestis, made the first recorded observations of Uranus, laid the foundation stone for the Royal Greenwich Observatory ·
• 📌Little Horton (9) ·
• Magnetosphere (1) ·
• Northern lights (2), aurora borealis ·
• Sharp, Abraham (1653-1742) (6), mathematician and astronomer, assistant of John Flamsteed ·
• Solar wind (1) ·
• Sun (3) ·
• Superstition (14) ·

All tags.

Similar

• 7 December 1703: Abraham Sharp writes to John Flamsteed of the difficulties of observing Jupiter from Little Horton, Bradford
• 19 November 1715: Writing to the astronomer John Flamsteed, Abraham Sharp of Little Horton (Bradford) hopes that defeat at the Battle of Preston has ended local Jacobite aspirations
• 19 October 1715: Abraham Sharp of Halifax fears for the fate of his scientific instruments
• 24 May 1669: Abraham Sharp (16), later mathematician and astronomer, undertakes not to fornicate for the next eight years and is apprenticed to a York textile merchant
• 2 March 1665: A sighting of the northern lights at Northowram (Halifax) recalls the eve of the civil war
• 30 October 1744: Landowners form a partnership to pipe water from Little Horton to Bradford, facilitating urban growth
• 18 March 1650: Dorothy Rodes of Bowling (Bradford) blames witchcraft by Mary Sykes for the postpartum illness of her daughter
• 10 October 1730: John Hobson observes a fiery red star to the north over Barnsley
• 11 December 1680: The Great Comet is seen at Halifax as a natural event, in London – amid Popish Plot hysteria – as a portent
• 23 June 1674: Oliver Heywood attends the funeral of Martha Stansfield and her baby