Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.15508

    Fiery meteor

    Date
    Gdansk
    Creator
    Unknown, Artist
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Manuscript page number
    p2
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 168mm
    width (page): 224mm
    Subject
    Content object
    Description
    A short letter from Johannes Hevelius to Henry Oldenburg with a drawing on the back describing the observations of a fiery meteor as observed at Gdansk on 13 April 1671. The observations were not done by Hevelius, but by 'a friend, who saw it himself'.
    Transcription
    Kurtze Beschreibung eines Meteori igniti welches sich alhie zu dantzig hatt sehen lassen
    Transcribed by the Making Visible project
    Object history
    11 May 1671, 'Mr. Oldenburg read a letter to him from Mr. Hevelius, dated at Dantzick, May 1, 1671, N.S., giving an account of [...] A description of an odd fiery meteor lately seen at Dantzick' (Birch 2:481).
    Related fellows
    Johannes Hevelius (1611 - 1687, German/Polish) , Astronomer
    Henry Oldenburg (1612 - 1677, German) , Scientific correspondent
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > Poland
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