Sighting in Mamoudzou, December 31, 2009

A witness filled in a questionnaire describing a very bright, stationary point of light in the east, seen at about 9 p.m. local time on the evening of 31 December. The observation lasted around ten minutes, and the point changed colour. The witness had first mentioned a very fast apparent movement at high altitude.

The investigation established that this movement was in fact the drifting of clouds. A fixed, very bright point that changes colour over ten minutes points to the brightest star in the sky, Sirius. A check of the sky's configuration at that time confirmed that Sirius was indeed in the part of the sky the witness was looking at, in the east. GEIPAN therefore classified the case as A: an astronomical observation of Sirius.