Sighting in Bonnes, December 13, 2015
Charente, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France
Sighting on December 13, 2015 in Bonnes (Charente, France). GEIPAN identified the phenomenon with certainty: it was the star Sirius (class A).
What happened
At about 11:30 pm on a December evening, the witness noticed a motionless point of light in the night sky. It flickered in several colours: red, yellow, green and blue. It seemed to be at a very high altitude, but the witness thought it was too bright to be a satellite. They filmed it. Their wife also saw the phenomenon. The witness then decided to stop watching. Only one account of the event was collected.
The GEIPAN investigation, carried out with the specialised CNES/GEIPAN software IPACO, established that the witness had observed and filmed the star Sirius. The conditions were exceptional and favoured strong scintillation, which accounts for the changing colours. GEIPAN classified the case as A: an astronomical misidentification.
Account rewritten by SkyUnknown from the investigation report published by GEIPAN (CNES). The original text and case documents are on the official record.
- Date
- December 13, 2015
- Location
- Bonnes · town centre
- Type of sighting
- From the ground
- Source classification
- A
- Explanation
- Stars
Sources
- See the original document
GEIPAN (CNES)
n° 2015-12-09373
Summary written by SkyUnknown from the facts published by the source.