The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 3-Oct-54-Roubaix.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
Around 2017, "skeptical" ufologist Dominique Caudron, based in the Nord, cataloged sightings in the Nord region for October 3, 1954, neglected by ufologists, including many that were previously unpublished, and mostly explainable by a red moon whose appearance was altered by clouds.
One of these observations was reported in the regional newspaper Nord Eclair, Roubaix issue for October 6, 1954, on page 3:
At 08:15 p.m., some inhabitants of Roubaix reportedly observed, very high at several hundred meters, a kind of immobile dome, of a red-orange color, not very brilliant, whose light trembled slightly, which then went towards Lille.
[Ref. dcn1:] DOMINIQUE CAUDRON:
The weekend of October 2-3 appears on all graphs as the maximum-maximorum of the 1954 wave. Although the work of counting the press of the time is not yet finished, the 118 various issues of newspapers and magazines I have been able to analyze for this period gives us an almost complete overview, in any case very broadly representative of the regional observations which were reported in the press for Sunday, October 3. I included the observations of the Somme which seemed to me inseparable from those of Nord - Pas-de-Calais and which also appear in the chapter entitled "Zigzag on the mining country" of the book by A. Michel: "Mystérieux Objets Célestes."
I count, as one case, each observation made by an independent group of witnesses. The astonishing quantity of observations reported below, shows once again the interest of thoroughly searching the newspaper archives.
OCTOBER 3, 1954:
[... other cases...]
14) 08:15 p.m., ROUBAIX _59_ : Reseidents repotredly observed, very high at several hundred meters, a kind of motionless dome, red-orange, not very brilliants, whose clarity shook slightly, which ten went away towards vers Lille. (N.E. -Roubaix, p.3, 6/10)
[... other cases...]
Dominique Caudron explains that for this case as for others in the region at the time, it was a misintrepretation caused by a setting crescent moon barred by a cloud.
[Ref. dcn3:] DOMINIQUE CAUDRON:
Dominique Caudron drew up an inventory of observations in the Nord on October 3, 1954, containing 51 reports, including this one:
[...]
Chronology of the observations of October 3.
We give here only a summary of what was published in the press of the time, for the Nord region, regardless of what the ufologists could later say. We have numbered all these observations, the first of which have nothing to do with the setting of the moon, in order to be able to study them globally in a table. Some are already the subject of a special file.
[... other cases...]
14) 08:15 p.m., ROUBAIX (59)
- Some inhabitants reportedly observed, very high at several hundred meters, a kind of immobile dome, of a red-orange color, not very brilliant, whose light trembled slightly, which then went towards Lille.
(Nord Eclair-Roubaix iss. 10/6 page 3)
[... other cases...]
All this is only a compilation of the information given by all newspapers of the time, including local editions, and of which ufologists only used a part.
We will see that the analysis of this information makes it possible to eliminate the hypothesis of a flying saucer, in favor of those of multiple observations of the moon, whose image was reddened and deformed by clouds, which also gave it a illusory apparent movement.
[Ref. dcn4:] DOMINIQUE CAUDRON:
[... other cases...]
14) 08:15 p.m., ROUBAIX (59)
Same appearance as the moon that night, same direction than the moon.
[... other cases...]
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The center of Lille is at the Southwest of the center of Roubaix.
The Moon seen from Roubaix was at that time at the 216° 18' azimuth, the 5° 54' elevation, it will be set under the horizon at 09:15 p.m. It was in its last crescent with 36.3 % of its surface lit.
As indicated by Dominique Caudron, the object was in the direction of the Moon. The color also, matches the red Moon.
The height of "several hundred meters" is meaningless here: for an object of unknown nature at an unknown distance, only an angular height would have made sense.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Roubaix, Nord, night, Lille, multiple, very high, dome, motionless, red, orange, gleam, shaky
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | June 6, 2019 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | May 5, 2022 | Addition [dcn1]. |
