Now they would say that it was a UFO

In the complete collection (1954-2012) of notes from the "Once upon a time..." column of the legendary magazine "Technika-molodezhi" there is the following text:

One autumn evening in 1848, Emperor Nicholas I, walking in Tsarskoye Selo Park, suddenly saw a fireball in the misty autumn haze. It moved rapidly across the dark sky, constantly changing in color. Returning to the Palace, the Emperor immediately sent a courier to the Pulkovo Observatory to find out whether this phenomenon was noticed there and how scientists explain its nature. And I got the answer: no one saw anything because the darkness and fog did not allow scientists to observe anything at all.

That same evening, at the reception of the Empress, an agitated and excited Nikolai Pavlovich told the courtiers about the phenomenon he had seen. And then count Olsufiev, who was confused, confessed to the Tsar: it was a balloon made of colored paper with several candles burning inside it, which he launched to amuse his children. Flying in the fog, the ball really took different bizarre shapes and seemed larger than it actually was…