Sighting in Baraigne, October 5, 2019

Three people walking their dogs by a lake one evening were looking at the Big Dipper when they noticed a very bright point of light. It moved fast and in a straight line from the northwest toward the west, and seemed to spin on itself. According to one of the witnesses, it then made a sharp turn of about 90° to the left and left their field of view. The sky was clear, with no clouds, no wind and no noise. What struck all three as strange was the intense brightness, the speed, and the way it vanished while changing direction.

Each of the three sent a questionnaire to GEIPAN, and their accounts agree. A video of the end of the trajectory, filmed between 8:37 and 8:39 pm, was also supplied, along with photos of maps showing where the observation took place and its orientation, from the northwest toward the east.

The investigation concluded that the witnesses saw a pass of the International Space Station. Its strong brightness (minimum magnitude of -3.6), the timing, the trajectory calculated with the CalSky website, its position above the Big Dipper, the start and end azimuths and the direction of travel all match what the witnesses described. The object was high in the sky, above 60° elevation. The apparent "left turn" corresponds to the station's normal disappearance at the end of its visibility: its brightness fades and it seems to move away, which gives the impression of a change of course. The video shows a very bright point, but zooming in does not reveal the shape of the ISS. The small circular spot surrounded by concentric rings is a diffraction effect produced by a camera lens on a very bright source. The remaining strangeness is therefore low and, since the testimonies are highly consistent, GEIPAN classed the case A: very probable misidentification of the ISS.