TRY THE HTML VERSION AT >>> www.perceptions.couk.com/bonilla.html
for easy-use links, graphics and general readability - RD
08:00 hrs, 12 August 1883 Mexico
Zacatecas Observatory's boss, leading astronomer Jose Bonilla and an assistant
were preparing to study the Sun's corona when he saw distant objects crossing
his field of view.
During the next 36 hours the two worked continuously (through daylight hours
when Sun was visible) to record the transits of those "disks" across the solar
face, using the Observatory's new camera equipment.
One of Bonilla's images is linked from word `photographs' in a page - just ask
Google for "psyche storms"
Image URL http://www.perceptions.couk.com/uef/imgs/firstufo.jpg
Early on, they counted 283 of the `craft' in two hours, but, due to the bulky
photographic plates' awkward set-ups and removals, they must have seen less
than the true total `flying past' during their vigil. In total they observed
the passage of 447 disks
Bonilla said some craft showed as almost perfectly circular shadows when seen
silhouetted against the Sun, that they traveled side by side in pairs, in groups
of up to 20, and that they moved across the Sun's face in a perfectly straight
line, from West to East - ie. from right to left.
As an astronomer Bonilla was well qualified to mathematically work out their
motion and speed, and his equipment had sufficently precise focussing for him
to estimate their distance - he is reported at first as saying "not more than
300,000 kms" ie. approx 3/4s of the distance to the Moon
Later his report said they were about 242,000 kms away - approx half of the
Moon's average distance. But there is no reported statement as to their
trajectory. Ie. were they departing - or approaching - the Earth / Moon system?
Below - a translation of report (seems that UFO = OVNI in Portuguese)
Below that - our calculations and a thought or two.
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http://www.acasicos.com/html/a1foto.htm
Auto-translated from Portuguese (Beta)
1ª known Photo OVNI
12 of August of 1883, Zacatecas (Mexico), Jose Bonilla, astronomer, studied
the Sun in the astroroof of the city where he was managing, when for its
surprise (at the time it was not said in OVNIs), it identified a series of
spots that crossed the solar record in line total straight line, to a
distance which the astronomer calculated to be not superior the 300,000 km.
In other words, these objects were to a distance long-distance equivalent of
the Land to the Moon.
Bonilla immediately photographed enigmatic objects. Until test in contrast,
those had been the first OVNIs photographs of that if it has register. The
comment, according to Bonilla, lasted one day and part of the following day.
Also according to it: "those objects passed of two in two over the solar
record".
None of the eminent scientists of the time took the serious one when the
astronomer took the public its sensational discovery. Discouraged, Jose
Bonilla sent the photos to the L'Astronomie (reviewed of popular astronomy,
metereologia and physics of the globe), of Paris, that considered them good
and it published them in pages 347 of volume and 1885.
The same Bonilla writes in the L'Astronomie, published for Camille Flammarión:
- "... In 12 of August of 1883, to 8:00h, I started to extract points of the
Sun when, suddenly, I observed a small shining object that penetrated in the
field of the telescope, being marked in the paper that I used to designate the
points. It crossed the solar record and it was projected as an almost circular
shade. When it was finishing to recoup me of the surprise, the same phenomenon
was happened again in one such frequency that, during two hours, I was capable
to count to 283 objects crossing the face of the Sun."
Bonilla and its assistant had registered 331 "objects" in related the 12 of
August and 116 in the following day with a 447 total of OVNIs. The covered
trajectory was of west to the east, with greater or south minor northward
inclination or of the solar record.
- "As frequently I took off photographs of the Sun when its record showed to
points and ' faculae ' (luminous regions of the fotosfera of the Sun, seen
very easily close to its edges), to decide to photograph also this rare and
interesting phenomenon of the ticket of the bodies through the Sun.
With this objective I substituted, in the exactly equatorial one, the lens of
16 cm for another one of the same intensity, with a chemical focus
(appropriate for the photographic work), and the ocular one for a camera.
After some attempts adjusting the equipment, I obtained to take off some
photos, having sent for the most interesting L'Astronomie. While I took off
these photographs, an assistant counted the bodies with the equatorial finder
of the telescope. The photograph was taken off using a humid plate with a time
of exposition of 1/100 of second. This speed did not allow me to study and
conveniently to prepare the banns and, moreover, the negative had of being a
little colored by the revealer. The focus is not total in the Sun but yes in
the body, that was more interesting in this occasion."
Jose Bonilla considered that in accordance with its calculations, those baffling
"flotillas", which passed before the Sun in formations of 15 the 20 objects,
could sail to a distance esteem of 242.000Km of the Land.
See also "1883" mention at
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Nebula/5924/
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"Perceptions" calculations - using John Walker's free ORRERY
http://www.fourmilab.ch/homeplanet/
----------------
On 12 August 1883 the Moon was at `first quarter' - that is, to the `left' of
the Sun, distance: about 400,000 km from Earth.
Mars, Saturn & Neptune were to the `right' of the Sun (Venus & Mercury were on
far side of Sun)
`Fleet' was observed moving in plane of ecliptic, in line with the planets,
across the Solar System.
The `disks' were seen to travel across the face of the Sun, moving to the `left'
Therefore, if `fleet' was at distance of 240,000 to 250,000 km, it could have
been traveling from Earth to the Moon -
or, more likely, from the direction of Mars / Saturn / Neptune towards the Moon
- Earth system; possibly to pass between them for night-side landings on either,
or both.
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"Perceptions" thoughts -
Nineteenth century observatory chiefs were more `independent scientists', being
relatively unworried by national authority or Press comment, due to slow
communications, relative isolation etc.
But now the dead hand of "government" bigotry intervenes in all science, not
just in the funding but in `results'. The effects of bureaucratic and political
intervention, bias and censorship have been growing through 20th century, as we
have seen -
from `western' POV we've accused totalitarian countries of suppressing news of
natural disasters, censored because the "rulers" felt it made them look
helpless. Don't you think that same psychology applies to our own "rulers"
- increasingly using `totalitarian' tactics?
Just ask Google for "greatest discoveries of 20th Cent" or maybe check
<< perceptions reports.html >> or "badsci.txt" / "badsci2.txt".
Are modern astronomy-chiefs gagged, "legally" & "officially", by government?
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Maybe try the HTML version now available at www.perceptions.couk.com/bonilla.html
for the easy-use links, graphics and general readability - RD
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footnote to www.perceptions.couk.com/uef/wb2.html - "psyche storms"
here's some more interesting reports from same era
http://www.perceptions.couk.com/fortre1883.html
and later evidence of censorship at
http://www.perceptions.couk.com/reports.html
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FURTHER REFERENCES
GO - "search perceptions" - in SEARCH-ENGINE
file-ID www.perceptions.couk.com/uef/first.txt