Sighting in Les Auxon, June 19, 2017

At around 10:30-11 pm, a witness saw a sparkling light appear in the sky, below what they took to be Venus. It moved across the sky and then vanished in a halo, which puzzled them. Between half an hour and three quarters of an hour later, the witness saw the same phenomenon again, almost directly overhead, this time without the halo. The witness attached a photographic reconstruction to the questionnaire. It was the only account received.

The witness's indications were very precise. The reconstruction showed that the reference object was not Venus but Jupiter, which was also very bright that evening. Among the satellites visible that night, the investigation singled out one whose final descending path matched the description: it passed 10-15° to the right of Jupiter at about 10:50 pm, within the witness's admittedly imprecise time window. This was USA 234/FIA Radar 2, a US military satellite. Its ordinary brightness is well below what the witness described, but satellites of this kind can produce very bright, fleeting flashes through a mirror effect with the Sun, and such flashes have been recorded for this satellite and its twin. The grey halo was explained as the flash fading just as the satellite moved behind a light haze that the witness had not noticed in an otherwise clear sky. This explanation was judged probable enough to be retained despite that remaining oddity.

For the second sighting, information was lacking. An Iridium flare did occur in that time slot, but at 34° elevation, which cannot be called overhead. Several satellites passed near the zenith, but no conclusion was possible without more detail on the position and direction of travel. A witness whose curiosity has been aroused may also link unrelated features to the first event. GEIPAN classified the first phenomenon as B (probable satellite sighting) and the second as C (account unusable for lack of reliable information).