Observations placeholder
Cronaca di Rolandino da Padova - 1252, Padua, Italy: Flying light, seen for an hour
Identifier
028860
Type of Spiritual Experience
None
Background
A description of the experience
As quoted in Wonders In The Sky - Unexplained Aerial Objects From Antiquity To Modern Times - and Their Impact on Human Culture, History, and Beliefs - Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubeck
This event is described in the Cronaca di Rolandino da Padova, where a witness reports:
"A certain great star, like a comet, but it was not a comet because it did not have a tail and it was a portentous thing because it looked almost as large as the moon, and it moved faster than the moon, but as fast as falling stars, and indeed it was not the moon. It was observable for an hour and then it vanished."
This object, as described, was not a comet or a meteor.
Source: U. DaH'Olmo, "Meteors, meteor showers and meteorites in the Middle Ages: From European medieval sources," Journal for the History of Astronomy 9 (1978).