18 August 1783 / T009
The great meteor depicted at Windsor
Observed from Windsor Castle terrace
Witness account
A striking eighteenth-century image shows people on Windsor Castle's terrace watching a bright object in the night sky. Its own title identifies the event as the meteor of 18 August 1783. It belongs in a careful UFO-history prelude as a documented natural celestial event whose dramatic depiction can be misleading when detached from its original caption.
Public record
The Science Museum Group catalogues an aquatint made in 1783, naming Paul Sandby as engraver and Thomas Sandby as artist. The National Trust's corresponding object record preserves the fuller title, including the observation time of eighteen minutes after nine in the evening. These collection records give a specific event, date, medium, and attribution.