The undeniable miracle at Fatima

[pocaracas]

According to this site, this is what was reported:

A hora antiga é a que regula para esta multidão, que calculos desapaixonados de pessoas cultas e de todo o ponto alheias ás influencias místicas computam em trinta ou quarenta mil creaturas... A manifestação miraculosa, o sinal visível anunciado está prestes a produzir-se – asseguram muitos romeiros... E assiste-se então a um espectaculo unico e inacreditavel para quem não foi testemunha d'ele. Do cimo da estrada, onde se aglomeram os carros e se conservam muitas centenas de pessoas, a quem escasseou valor para se meter á terra barrenta, vê-se toda a imensa multidão voltar-se para o sol, que se mostra liberto de nuvens, no zenit. O astro lembra uma placa de prata fosca e é possível fitar-lhe o disco sem o minimo esforço. Não queima, não cega. Dir-se-hia estar-se realizando um eclipse. Mas eis que um alarido colossal se levanta e aos espectadores que se encontram mais perto se ouve gritar:
– Milagre, milagre! Maravilha, maravilha!
Aos olhos deslumbrados d'aquele povo, cuja atitude nos transporta aos tempos bíblicos e que, palido de assombro, com a cabeça descoberta, encara o azul, o sol tremeu, o sol teve nunca vistos movimentos bruscos fóra de todas as leis cosmicas – o sol «bailou», segundo a tipica expressão dos camponezes... Empoleirado nos estribos do auto-omnibus de Torres Novas, um ancião cuja estatura e cuja fisionomia, ao mesmo tempo doce e energica, lembram as de Paul Déroulède, recita, voltado para o sol, em voz clamorosa, de principio a fim, o Credo. Pergunto quem é e dizem-me ser o sr. João Maria Amado de Mello Ramalho da Cunha Vasconcellos. Vejo-o depois dirigir-se aos que o rodeiam e que se conservaram de chapeu na cabeça, suplicando-lhes, veementemente, que se descubram em face de tão extraordinaria demonstração da existencia de Deus. Cenas identicas repetem-se n'outros pontos e uma senhora clama, banhada em aflitivo pranto e quasi n'uma sufocacão:
– Que lastima! Ainda ha homens que se não descobrem deante de tão estupendo milagre!
E, a seguir, perguntam uns aos outros se viram e o que viram. O maior numero confessa que viu a tremura, o bailado do sol; outros, porem, declaram ter visto o rosto risonho da propria Virgem, juram que o sol girou sobre si mesmo como uma roda de fogo de artificio, que ele baixou quasi a ponto de queimar a terra com os seus raios... Ha quem diga que o viu mudar sucessivamente de côr...

Which translates roughly (by me) to:

The ancient hour regulates this crowd, that dispassionate calculations by knowledgeable people and everywhere unaware of the mystic influences compute in thirty or forty thousand creatures... The miraculous manifestation, the announced visible sign is about to happen - so many roamers assure themselves... And that is when a unique spectacle  and unbelievable for who didn't witness it. From the top of the road, where the cars bundle up and hundreds of people stand, to whom failed the bravery to step on the muddy earth, you can see the immense crowd turn to the sun, that is now clear of clouds, at its zenith. The star looks like a dull silver disc and it's possible to look at it with minimum effort. It doesn't burn, it doesn't blind. One would say an eclipse was happening. And that is when a commotion among the nearer spectators and you hear shouting:
- Miracle, miracle! Wonder, wonder!
To the amazed eyes of that people, whose attitude carries us to biblical times and whom, pale with wonder, with the head uncovered, faces the blue, the sun trembled, the sun had never before seen sudden movements out of every cosmic laws - the sun "danced", according to the typical farmers' expression... leaning from the sides of the bus from Torres Novas, an elder whose stature (blahblah... looks like some guy, turns out to be a) Mr João Maria Amado de Mello Ramalho da Cunha Vasconcellos. I see him addressing those around him and that keep their hats on, vehemently begging them  to uncover themselves, facing such an extraordinary display of the existence of God. Similar scenes are repeated in other places and a lady shouts, washed in a worrisome cry and almost suffocating:
- What a shame! There are still men who will not uncover before such stupendous miracle!
And then they ask each other if they saw what they saw. The larger number confesses to seeing the trembling, the sun dancing; others, however, declare to having seen the smiling face of the Virgin herself, they swear that the sun spun over itself, like a fireworks wheel, that it came down almost to the point of burning the earth with its rays... Some say they saw it successfully change color...

So there you go.
The crowd was estimated at 30 to 40 thousand, not 70.
Most saw a trembling, at best. Spread out, some people spurred everyone around them to "see" something more...
Even though, many people remained unfased... as if nothing much had happened.
And a few fringe folk claimed the more outlandish things, like the sun coming down and changing color and spinning

So... at best, one can reliable say that people saw the sun tremble.
Is that so unlikely, given that it had been raining and it was now a radiant sunshine? At its zenith, it was noon, after all... as water evaporates and rises, some atmospheric lensing effects are bound to happen. Specially, even, in a place with the topology of Cova da Iria... luckily, the clue is in the name: cova translates to "hole in the ground"... the region has a bit of a parabolic shape, which helps to produce some cool effects in the Summer months.
Similar to the distortions we all see just above a hot road - hey look, a flying car!!


Can't say it's a common phenomenon, but the cameras present on site failed to capture it...

Here's what they did capture:

---

---

Yeah... people... even the ones looking up, have a bit of a skeptical look about them...