Gottfried Kirch

Gottfried Kirch (1639-1710) was a German astronomer and director of the Berlin Observatory. On July 9, 1686, Kirch reported observing an extremely bright fireball with a tail approximately one-quarter the size of the Moon hovering in the sky near Leipzig, Germany for approximately fifteen minutes. According to his account, the object was witnessed by people in towns as far as eleven miles away, and eventually darted off to the right while leaving two small 'globules' visible only through telescope. Kirch's detailed documentation of this aerial phenomenon makes him a notable early historical figure in astronomical observations of unidentified aerial objects.