Sighting in Estandeuil, March 5, 2016

At around 11 p.m., a witness noticed a point of light in the sky that seemed to stay in one place. Looking at it through a spotting scope, they made out blue, violet and white beams. Their spouse, who was also there, thought it was a twinkling star or planet, though they found it had a violet colour. The witness placed the point at an azimuth of about 236°, a value measured indirectly on Geoportail, and less than 15° above the horizon.

The investigation compared these details with the position of Sirius. Between 11:00 and 11:30 p.m., the star moved from azimuth 215° (south-southwest) at an elevation of 15° to azimuth 225° (southwest) at an elevation of 13°, as a Stellarium sky chart shows. The phenomenon could therefore only be Sirius: otherwise the witness would also have reported Sirius, or another very bright star in a clear sky, right next to it, especially when using a spotting scope. The witness was misled, as often happens, by the shifting glints and colours of Sirius when it is low on the horizon, and possibly even more so because they were looking through a window pane. GEIPAN therefore classified the case as A: observation of Sirius.