CROSS IN MOON, TWO EXTRA MOONS

The following is an extract from a letter signed “Veritas,” dated Auburn, N. Y., Feb. 27, 1843:—LDT 120.1

“I have seen no published notice of a singular phenomenon which was seen by the citizens of this place, and also, I understand, in the neighboring towns, on the evening of the 16th of February. Coming out of church about half past nine o’clock, with some friends, ... the moon being then near its full, and in its ascension about one half above the eastern horizon, in a clear sky, there were seen in the same distance from the horizon and parallel with the moon, two bright representations of the moon, a little obscured, having the colors of the rainbow. These mock moons, as they were called, continued visible until about ten o’clock, the northern one fading away first. I understand that they had been visible some time previous to their being noticed by us. But the most extraordinary part of the whole was, that before they faded away, there was distinctly seen a light or luminous line running perpendicular through the true moon, commencing a little above and running down to near the horizon; then another, a similar streak, crossing the other horizontally through the center of the moon, giving the appearance of a cross. A brother was asked the next day how he accounted for it. He said it was the reflection of the false moons upon the true moon. When asked why these reflections were not horizontal or both perpendicular, he could not give the reason.LDT 120.2

“The above you may depend upon as correct, as it was seen by many witnesses.”LDT 121.1

On the 14th of July, 1898, as I was exhibiting a diagram of this scene, in a hall in 125th Street, New York City, an old gentleman in the audience said: “I was living at Auburn at the time of that phenomenon, and saw it. It was exactly as here represented.” On December 10, of the same year, while I was exhibiting the same at the St. Helena Sanitarium, in California, the late Judge Beebe, of Santa Barbara, Cal., who was there as a patient, saw the picture, and said: “I was living at Auburn, N. Y., at the time of that phenomenon. I was thirteen years old. I witnessed the same. It was exactly as here pictured out.”LDT 121.2