Mexican scientists from the National Autonomous University of Mexico have proposed an explanation for the unusual observations made by astronomer José Bonilla in 1883
I managed to find only such small prints from those photos
The article by scientists has not been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, but its preprint is available at arXiv.org. Scientists do not present methods of practical verification of their own hypothesis (or the results of computer modeling).
On August 12 and 13, 1883, Bonilla noticed blurred objects surrounded by a slight haze against the background of the Sun. In two days, he managed to count 450 such objects. In 1886, his article with the results of observations was published in the journal L'Astronomie, in which he, however, did not offer any explanation for the observed phenomenon.
Since the observations were not confirmed by other observatories, the scientific community concluded that Bonilla observed insects or birds flying in relative proximity to his telescope. In turn, ufologists who appeared later consider Bonill's results to be the first reliable UFO sighting in modern history.
As part of the new work, scientists suggested that other observatories did not see objects from parallax - a visible change in the position of objects due to a change in the position of the observer. Because of this, for other observers, objects did not pass across the disk of the Sun. Scientists believe that it was about pieces of a comet - the most likely candidate is the Pons-Brooks comet, discovered in 1812.
Among other things, scientists were able to estimate the size, speed and distance from the observed objects to the Earth. So, scientists believe that objects flew at an altitude of 538 to 8062 kilometers above the ground (which is quite a bit by cosmic standards). At the same time, the diameter of the bodies ranged from 68 to 1022 meters. How the modern orbit of the object relates to their hypothesis, the Mexicans do not report.
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The total mass of the debris could be about one hundred thousand billion tons. In turn, the energy that would be released in the collision of debris with the Earth, according to the calculations of the Mexicans, would be 3275 times higher than the energy of the Tunguska phenomenon.