Sighting in Favars, November 29, 2019

Shortly before 10:00 pm, a witness standing on an outdoor terrace noticed what they first took for a very bright star, though its twinkling puzzled them. Nine people were called out to the terrace and watched the phenomenon change: it appeared and disappeared, and parts of it split off and moved away. The witness tried to film it with a mobile phone, without success. The observation lasted about 80 minutes, starting at 9:50 pm, toward the south-east at an azimuth of 123°, below the constellation of Canis Minor, between 30 and 60° elevation.

Only one testimony was collected at first. During the investigation, a second, very brief testimony arrived by email, along with videos showing the phenomenon.

GEIPAN initially favoured an astronomical misidentification: the very long duration is typical of such cases, the appearance in the videos is consistent with a bright star that is hard to focus on at night, and the twinkling is explained by a star low on the horizon whose light passes through atmospheric turbulence. However, Sirius, which matches the azimuth, had not yet risen (rising at 10:12 pm). Procyon, in Canis Minor, was on the eastern horizon at 9:50 pm, outside the direction and elevation the witness gave. Finally, the movement of the lights was confirmed neither by a relative of the witness, the only other person traced, nor by the videos. The angular height remains largely imprecise. The case is classified C, for lack of reliable data.