On 12 August 1883, photographs were taken by astronomer Jose A y Bonilla at the Zacatecas Observatory in Mexico of objects crossing the face of the Sun.

In 1885, the French publication “L’Astronomie” published an observation by Jose A y Bonilla, the director of the Zacatecas Observatory in Mexico, northwest of Mexico City. Bonilla’s account included the following:

On August 12, 1883 at 8am, I was starting to outline the solar spots when all of a sudden I caught sight of a small luminous body, which was entering the scope of the telescope, standing out on the paper I used to reproduce the spots, and wandering over the solar disc, projecting itself like a shadow almost circular.

I had hardly recovered from my surprise when the same phenomenon happened again and at such short intervals that within 2h. I was able to count up to 283 bodies crossing the solar disc.

Bonilla took several photographs which he sent to “L’Astronomie”.

 

Claims to fame

Several researchers have referred to these photographs as “the first UFO photographs”.

During 2003-2007, Isaac Koi reviewed a sample of 963 UFO and SETI books and noted the frequency with which various UFO cases were discussed. This incident is Case 87 in Isaac Koi's "Top 100" article, since it was referred to in 32 of the books covered by that article. The Bonilla photos featured in a list of the top 10 photographic cases (in terms of frequency of discussion). This incident was the eighth most frequently discussed UFO photographic case in the study, with 32 discussions being noted.

 

Isaac Koi’s “ICES” Rating for this sighting = 5544 (out of a potential score of 14*14*14*14 i.e. 38416)

(1) “Impact” Rating of 11 (out of a potential score of 14), because it is Case 87 in Isaac Koi's "Top 100" article.

(2) “Credibility” Rating of 12 (out of a potential score of 14), because no-one appears to have identified any evidence that the photographs are faked or been altered (or, indeed, that Bonilla's account is untrue or inaccurate in any way). The debate regarding this incident has been about what the relevant "bodies" seen on the photographs actually are.  However, the incident is not assigned a  “Credibility” Rating higher than 12 because the discussions of this case set out in the table below are generally not very detailed and a more detailed examination of the photograph (or Bonilla's accompanying account) possibly may reveal additional relevant evidence.

(2) “Expert” Rating of 7 (out of a potential score of 14). It is given this neutral rating because (at the time of writing) it has not been included in any of the short lists of the best cases produced by various UFO researchers that have been compiled by Isaac Koi (see the “Best UFO Cases" article at PART 3:  Existing lists by various individuals), nor it is frequently mentioned as a good example of a hoax or misperception.

(4)“Strangeness” Rating of 6 (out of a potential score of 14): While the true nature of the "bodies" shown on the photograph are not immediately obvious upon looking at the Bonilla photos, there are no details or structures visible that rule out a number of mundane explanations (e.g. birds or insects).  Similarly, Bonilla's accompanying account does make a specific mundane source clear but does not provide any details which (even if they are all true and accurate) would exclude a number of mundane explanations.  The Bonilla photos are therefore given a relatively low “Strangeness” Rating. It would be helpful to have the photos considered by somone familiar with taking photos of the Sun and/or to compare the Bonilla photos with photos of various objects crossing in front of the Sun.

 

 

In Larry Hatch’s *U* database this sighting is assigned:

(1) a Hynek Strangeness Rating of 6 by Larry Hatch (out of a potential score of 10), and

(2) a Hynek Probability Rating of 9 by Larry Hatch (out of a potential score of 10).

Multiplying together the two ratings assigned by Larry Hatch results in a score of 54 (out of a potential score of 100).

 

 

The Skeptics

Editors of “L’Astronomie”

In a note following Bonilla’s article, the editors of “L’Astronomie” comment that:

• The observation “is not easy to explain”
• However, the editors “believe that objects in question are birds, insects, or high atmospheric dust, anyway, corpuscules belonging to our atmosphere”.

Lore and Deneault

In their book “Mysteries of the Skies” (1968), Gordon Lore and Harold Deneault comment that the speed of the objects would “seem to exclude either insects or birds” but also suggest that “the number of objects would tend to argue against Bonilla’s having [seen] anything so exciting as extra-terrestrial vehicles”.

 

 

 

Sections below:

1. Web Resources

2. Book References

3. Other material

 

 

 

Web Resources

This sighting has been examined in some detail by Luis Ruiz Noguez, see:

http://www.perspectivas.com.mx/in/ovnisbonilla2.htm

 

This sighting was discussed on the UFO UpDates List during June 2008, in the course of which:

(a) Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos posted an email on 24 June 2008 noting that, after Bonilla published his note in the September 1885 issue of Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of France  September 1885, in the October 1886 issue "Jacques Léotard, from the Flammarion Scientific Society Observatory at Marseille, describes another set of similar observations (passage of black corpuscules in front of the Sun) on August 30, 1886. This time he confirms it were birds, with no speck of doubt".

(b) Brad Sparks posted an email on 25 June 2008 noting that "the angular size and velocity ofthese hundreds of objects as seen by Bonilla were consistent with 1-foot objects at 1-mile distance traveling at about 30 to 60 mph. In other words, birds."

 

There is a rapid turnover of UFO material on the Internet. Many links to material on UFO websites quickly become out of date. Therefore, instead of giving many links to specific webpages I have instead included below a search box which can be used to search various leading UFO websites at the same time. You can then click on tabs at the top of the search results to list only results from forums, only results from websites I have labelled as "skeptical" etc. I have included tabs for a couple of specific websites that I find particularly useful, including the valuable archives of the UFO UpDates email discussion List. The relevant websites are all listed in the discussion of the "UFO Searchillion" search engine in Section 2.4 of the "Free UFO Researcher Starter Pack" and continues to evolve...

 

The relevant search box is one of the two main tools on this website which are intended to help reduce the amount of reinvention of the wheel within UFOlogy. The other main tool is the collection of tables of references to discussion of UFO incidents, personalities and other matters in various books. Those tables can be sorted by author, length and date. I hope these tools are useful.

 

 

 

 

Book References

The table below includes references to relevant discussions in UFO/SETI books noted by Isaac Koi during a review of approximately 963 UFO/SETI books during the period 2003-2006 (with a few later additions). The table can be sorted by author, date and length of discussion by clicking on the relevant word in the top line of the table.

Many of the tables of references on this website are considerably longer than the references to books found on most other UFO websites. Indeed, some are probably the longest that have been collated in relation to some events and personalities. Together with the "UFO Searchillion" search box, I hope that these tables are found to be a useful contribution to UFOlogy.

For discussion of the Bonilla photographs see the following:

 

Year	Discussion by:	No. of Pages
1952	Arnold, Kenneth and Palmer, Ray in their “The Coming of the Saucers” (1952) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 119-120 (in Chapter 8) of the Amherst softcover edition.	2
1988	Beer, Lionel in “Phenomenon“ (1988) (edited by John Spencer and Hilary Evans) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 20 of the MacDonald hardback edition (Part 1, in the unnumbered chapter entitled “The Coming of the Saucers”).	1
1968	Binder, Otto in his “Flying Saucers Are Watching Us” (1968) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 65 (in Chapter 6) of the Belmont paperback edition.	1
2004	Birnes, William in his “The UFO Magazine UFO Encyclopedia” (2004) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 43-44 (in an entry entitled “Bonilla, A Y”) of the Pocket Books softcover edition.	2
1996	Blundell, Nigel in his “World’s Most Amazing UFO Visits” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 88 of the Select softcover edition.	1
2005	Brennan, Herbie in his “The Aliens Handbook” (2005) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 44 (in Chapter 8) of the Faber and Faber softcover edition.	1
1966	Edwards, Frank in his “Flying Saucers – Serious Business” (1966) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK)at pages 17-18 (in Chapter 1) of the Bantam paperback edition, at pages 23-24 of the Mayflower-Dell paperback edition.	2
1962	Edwards, Frank in his “Strangest of All” (1962) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 168-169 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Authorities Who Believe in Flying Saucers”) of the Ace paperback edition.	2
1976	Flammonde, Paris in his “Ufo Exist!” (1976) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 270 (in Chapter 14) of the Ballantine Books paperback edition.	1
1919	Fort, Charles in his “The Book of the Damned” (1919) at pages 223-224 (in Chapter 16) of the Devon hardback edition (in “The Complete Books of Charles Fort”) at page 233 of the Sphere paperback edition.	2
1956	Guieu, Jimmy in his “Flying Saucers Come From Another World” (1956) (edited by Ronald Story) (edited by Ronald Story) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 206-207 (in Chapter 9) of the Hutchinson hardback edition.	2
1970	Keel, John A in his “UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse” (1970) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 32-33 (in Chapter 2) of the Souvenir Press hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Abacus softcover edition).	2
1971	Kettelkamp, Larry in his “Investigating UFOs” (1971) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 25-26 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Sightings and Cases”) of the Target softcover edition.	2
1950	Keyhoe, Donald E in his “The Flying Saucers are Real” (1950) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 57-58 (in Chapter 7) of the Fawcett Gold Medal paperback edition, which has the same page numbering as the version available online at: http://www.nicap.dabsol.co.uk/fsar-chapters.htm	2
1979	Knight, David C in his “UFOs: A pictorial history from antiquity to the present” (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 21 (in Part 2), 146 (in Part 4) of the McGraw Hill hardback edition.	2
1999	Kurland, Michael in his “The Complete Idiot's Guide to Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 75-76 (in Chapter 8) of the Alpha Books softcover edition.	2
1968	Lore, Gordon and Harold Deneault in their “Mysteries of the Skies” (1968) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 55-57 (in Chapter 4) of the Prentice-Hall hardback edition.	3
2001	Picknett, Lynn in her “The Mammoth Book of UFOs” (2001) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 5-6 (in Chapter 1) of the Robinson softcover edition.	2
1996	Pope, Nick in his “Open Skies, Closed Minds” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 72 (in Chapter 4) of the Simon and Schuster hardback edition, with the same page numbering in the Pocket Books paperback edition.	1
2000	Randles, Jenny in her “The Little Giant Encyclopedia of UFOs” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 22 (in Part 1, “A UFO Timeline”), 314-315 (in Part 3, “UFOs Worldwide”) of the Sterling softcover edition.	1
1992	Randles, Jenny in her “UFOs and How to See Them” (1992) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 9 (in Chapter 1) of the Brockhampton Press hardback edition.	1
1979	Shuttlewood, Arthur in his “UFO Magic in Motion” (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 176-177 (in Chapter 9) of the Sphere paperback edition.	2
1991	Spencer, John in his “The UFO Encyclopedia” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 49 (in an entry entitled “Bonilla, Jose A Y”) of the Guild hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Avon softcover edition) at page 58 of the Headline paperback edition.	1
1966	Steiger, Brad in his “Strangers from the Skies” (1966) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 20 (in Chapter 3) of the Award Books paperback edition.	1
1978	Stemman, Roy in his “Mysteries of the Universe: Great Mysteries” (1978) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 182 (in Chapter 9) of the Book Club Associates hardback edition.	1
1986	Stevens, Wendelle and Roberts, August in their “UFO Photographs: Around The World: Vol. 1” (1986) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 10 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “UFOs Photographed”), 216 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Appendix 1 : Catalogue of UFO Photographic Reports”) of the UFO Photo Archives hardback edition.	1
1966	Trench, Brinsley Le Poer in his “The Flying Saucer Story” (1966) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 70 (in Chapter 7) of the revised Tandem paperback edition.	1
1973	Von Buttlar, Johannes in his “Journey to Infinity” (1973) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 175 (in Chapter 13) of the Fontana paperback edition.	1
1975	Weldon, John and Levitt, Zola in their “Encounters With UFOs“ (1975) (formerly “UFOs, What on Earth is Happening?”) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 32 (in Chapter 2) of the Harvest House paperback edition.	1
1954	Wilkins, Harold in his “Flying Saucers on the Moon” (1954) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 217-219 (in Chapter 9) of the Peter Owen hardback edition, at pages 210-212 of the Ace paperback edition published under the title “Flying Saucers on the Attack”.	3
1988	Wilson, Clifford in his “The Alien Agenda” (1988) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 16 (in Chapter 2) of the Signet paperback edition.	1
1974	Wilson, Clifford in his “UFOs and Their Mission Impossible” (1974) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 16 (in Chapter 2) of the Signet paperback edition.	1

 

Other Material

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