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Fort, Charles – New Lands

The oppositions of Mars occur once in about two years. and two months. In conventional terms, the eccentricity of the orbit of Mars is greater than the eccentricity of the orbit of this earth, and the part of its orbit that is traversed by this earth in August is nearest the orbit of Mars. When this earth is between Mars and the sun, Mars is said to be in opposition, and this is the position of nearest approach: when opposition occurs in August, that is the most favorable opposition. After that, every two years and about two months, the oppositions are less favorable, until the least favorable of all, in February, after which favorableness increases up to the climacteric opposition in August again. This is a cycle of changing proximities within a period of about fifteen years.

Night of July 31, 1813—flashes of light in the sky of Tottenham, near London (Year Book of Facts, 1853-272). The sky was clear. The flashes were attributed to a storm at Hastings, 65 miles away. We note not only that the planet Mars was in opposition at this time (July 30), but in one of the nearest of its oppositions in the 19th century.

In October, 1862, Lockyer saw a spot like a long train of clouds on Mars, and several days later Secchi saw a spot on Mars. And if that were signaling, it is very meager material upon which to suppose anything.

Oct. 24, 1864—period of nearest approach by Mars—red lights upon opposite parts of Mars (C. R., 85-538).

Jan. 3, .1865—again the red lights of Mars (C. R., 85-538).

May 8-22, 1873—white spots on Mars.

June 17, 1873, two months after nearest approach, but still in the period of opposition of Mars, there was either an extraordinary occurrence, or the extraordinariness is in our interpretation. See Rept. B. A., 1874-272. A luminous object came to this earth, and was seen and heard upon the night of June 17, 1873, to explode in the sky of Hungary, Austria, and Bohemia. In the words of various witnesses, termed according to their knowledge, the object was seen seemingly coming from Mars, or from "the red star in the south," where Mars was at the time.
Our data were collected by Dr. Galle.
The towns of Rybnik and Ratibor, Upper Silesia, are 15 miles apart. Without parallax, this luminous thing was seen from these points "to emerge and separate itself from the disc of the planet Mars." It so happens that we have a definite observation from one of these towns. At Rybnik, Dr. Sage was looking at Mars, at the time. He saw the luminous object "apparently issue from the planet." There is another circumstance, and for its reception our credulity, or our enlightenment, has been prepared. If this thing did come from Mars, it came from the planet to the point where it exploded in about 5 seconds: from the point of explosion, the sound traveled in several minutes. We have a description from Dr. Sage that indicates that a bolt of some kind, perhaps electric, did shoot from Mars, and that the planet quaked with the shock—"Dr. Sage was looking attentively at the planet Mars, when he thus saw the meteor apparently issue from it, and the planet appear as if it was breaking up and dividing into two parts."

June 10, 1892 - Out from a round, red planet, a little white shaft—a fairy's arrow shot into an apple. June 10, 1892—a light like a little searchlight, projecting from the limb of Mars. Upon July 11 and 13, it was seen again, by Campbell and Hussey (Nature, 50-500).

Nov. 25, 1894 - Astrophysical Journal, 1-127:  A light-reflecting body, or a bright spot near Mars: seen Nov. 25, 1894, by Prof. Pickering and others, at the Lowell Observatory, above an unilluminated part of Mars--self-luminous, it would seem--thought to have been a cloud--but estimated to have been about twenty miles away from the planet.

Night of Dec 7, 1900—for seventy minutes a fountain of light played upon the planet Mars.
Prof. Pickering—"absolutely inexplicable" (Sci. Amer., 84-179).

May 20, 1903 - Lowell Observatory;  In the first Bulletin issued by the Lowell Observatory, in 1903, Prof. Lowell describes a body that was seen on the terminator of Mars, May 20, 1903. On May 27, it was "suspected." If still there, it had moved, we are told, about 300 miles

October and November, 1911 - Popular Astronomy;  Very conspicuous and brilliant spots seen on the disk of Mars, October and November, 1911. (Popular Astronomy, Vol. 19, No. 10.)