Consideratio & observatio cometae aetherei astronomica qui anno MDLXXX mensibus octobri, novembri et decembri in alto aethere apparvit

North-West Latin: "mesocircium", a technical term for the quadrant between the North and West, that is, further toward the setting from the midnight circle. When I first looked at them, I saw luminous rays or beams coming forth, like oblong spears, which tended toward the West and soon vanished. Then, from the summer sunrise North-East, other spears soon protruded of the same length, gradually progressing toward the North, passing through the aforementioned shining areas. You would have called it a military expedition, brandishing spears, lifting them on high, and then lowering them, thirsting for nothing but the blood of enemies. The length of most of them was approximately equal to the polar altitude; these, like the former, tending toward the North, disappeared beneath the pole star. For no part of this chasm departed toward the West beyond the third splendor, but its entire form was contained within the North-East and North-West. Meanwhile, while those spears succeeded one another in continuous ranks, others being substituted in the places of the former, white cloudlets suddenly arose between the spears, and after a short interval, they were hidden, clearly resembling the smoke that follows a globe exploded with great force from artillery, and is quickly dissipated in the air. After these, from the East, through the star Arcturus, a thin cloud of pitchy color and circular shape extended with very rapid flight; it, passing between the zenith and the celestial pole, surrounds those three cohorts enclosed in a circle, but is no less quickly extinguished. Immediately, another similar arc does the same. This incessant rising of spears, most frequent vibration, successive progression to the North, extension on high, and disappearance under the pole, appeared for two continuous hours, during which those three luminous areas granted passage to the spears, but they themselves did not change their place in any way. But it must not be overlooked that during all that time, a pitch-black oblong cloudlet remained stretched through all those areas, from the West to the East, very similar to a weal-like rod, collected almost into a knot toward the West, and tighter where it is held by hands, but afterward more dilated. Nevertheless, because of the moonless night, I could not discern whether that rod was a true cloud casually existing there, or if it were actually a part of the chasm, for no star shone through it, even though all the rest of the sky offered the clearest and most serene view of all the stars, even in the middle of the chasm. At the 9th hour of the night, no more spears were seen; then those three luminous cohorts merged into one oblong light, which finally extended further toward the West, toward the Magisterial wind the West-North-West wind.