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The Book of the Damned
·
Charles Fort
278
Monthly
Notices
of
the
R.A.S.,
8-132:
"Remarkable
appearances
during
the
total
eclipse
of
the
moon
on
March
19,
1848":
In
an
extract
from
a
letter
from
Mr.
Forster,
of
Bruges,
it
is
said
that,
according
to
the
writer's
observations
at
the
time
of
the
predicted
total
eclipse,
the
moon
shone
with
about
three
times
the
intensity
of
the
mean
illumination
of
an
eclipsed
lunar
disk:
that
the
British
Consul,
at
Ghent,
who
did
not
know
of
the
predicted
eclipse,
had
written
enquiring
as
to
the
"blood-red"
color
of
the
moon.
This
is
not
very
satisfactory
to
what
used
to
be
our
malices.
But
there
follows
another
letter,
from
another
astronomer,
Walkey,
who
had
made
observations
at
Clyst
St.
Lawrence:
that,
instead
of
an
eclipse,
the
moon
became--as
is
printed
in
italics--"most
beautifully
illuminated"
...
"rather
tinged
with
a
deep
red"...
"the
moon
being
as
perfect
with
light
as
if
there
had
been
no
eclipse
whatever."
I
note
that
Chambers,
in
his
work
upon
eclipses,
gives
Forster's
letter
in
full--and
not
a
mention
of
Walkey's
letter.
There
is
no
attempt
in
Monthly
Notices
to
explain
upon
the
notion
of
greater
distance
of
the
moon,
and
the
earth's
shadow
falling
short,
which
would
make
as
much
trouble
for
astronomers,
if
that
were
not
foreseen,
as
no
eclipse
at
all.
Also
there
is
no
refuge
in
saying
that
virtually
never,
even
in
total
eclipses,
is
the
moon
totally
dark--"as
perfect
with
light
as
if
there
had
been
no
eclipse
whatever."
It
is
said
that
at
the
time
there
had
been
an
aurora
borealis,
which
might
have
caused
the
luminosity,
without
a
datum
that
such
an
effect,
by
an
aurora,
had
ever
been
observed
upon
the
moon.
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