Abstract
ASTRONOMICAL and ornithological readers of NATURE may be interested to hear of a somewhat extraordinary experience I had rather early in the morning of Feb. 16 while sweeping for comets. About 12.30 A.M. I was suddenly startled to see in the field of view of my 7¾-inch reflector, using an eyepiece giving about 35 power, about twelve to fifteen large golden-coloured objects, like third magnitude stars much out of focus, and thus enlarged, crossing the field at a fair pace. At first I wondered what it could be. It was as if a star cluster like the Pleiades had suddenly taken to flight. I soon recognised as I followed the objects in the telescope that they were a flight of the little white egrets, passing a little more than a mile away, and so high up that the electric lights of the city lit up the under side of their wings, giving them a golden colour like stars. I followed them for about two minutes, first in the reflector and then in the finder, until they got out of my reach towards the west. When first I saw them they were perhaps a little to the east of the Southern Cross, and about the same altitude, say 45°–50°. They travelled west and passed 4° or 5° below Canopus, and then I lost them, as they got too far west for my balcony.
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BLATHWAYT, T. High-Flying Egrets at Night. Nature 127, 595 (1931). https://doi.org/10.1038/127595b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/127595b0
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