The Seven Suns over Danzig
On a winter day in 1661, the people of Danzig looked up and saw seven suns in the sky, joined by great rings of light.
What was reported
On 20 February 1661, the astronomer Johannes Hevelius, who had built an observatory on the roofs of his houses in Danzig, today's Gdańsk, saw a spectacular display around the Sun. Besides the real Sun, there were six bright false suns, linked by a huge white ring running across the sky, with coloured arcs around them.
Hevelius drew the scene and published a careful description the next year. Displays like it were often taken as omens, but he treated it as something to be measured and explained.
Explanations offered
The display was a halo, made by sunlight shining through ice crystals high in the air. The false suns, called sun dogs or parhelia, and the white ring through them come from flat, plate-shaped crystals. Some of the rarer spots Hevelius drew still puzzle halo experts, and one faint halo is named after him.
- When
- 20 February 1661
- Where
- Gdańsk, Poland
- Witnesses
- Johannes Hevelius and the people of Danzig
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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