The event is particularly remembered in connection with an unusual phenomenon, an "auroral beam", which was observed from the Royal Observatory, Greenwich by astronomer Edward Walter Maunder and by John Rand Capron[1] from Guildown, Surrey.

The magnetic storm that caused the brilliant auroral display of November 1882 was reported in The New York Times and other newspapers as having an effect on telegraph systems, which were rendered useless in some cases.

In one case, two members of the ill-fated Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, including the astronomer, Edward Israel, while observing at Fort Conger near the north magnetic pole, instinctively ducked to avoid an aurora described as "as bright as the full moon".

[7] The phenomenon, which transited the sky in approximately seventy-five seconds, was witnessed and documented by the amateur scientist and astronomer, John Rand Capron, at Guildown, Surrey.

[1] In the article, Capron collected twenty-six separate accounts, of which the majority came from the United Kingdom: these included reports of the object's torpedo-shaped appearance and an apparent dark nucleus.