The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 7-Dec-54-Beauzac.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The regional newspaper Le Quotidien de la Haute-Loire for December 9. 1954, reported about a "luminous phenomenon in the sky of Beauzac" in the Haute-Loire on December 7, 1954:
"Many people saw a luminous object of blood red color of the size of a soccer ball evolving in the sky of Beauzac (Haute-Loire), Tuesday morning [December 7, 1954]. It was approximately 06:15 and the workmen of the Ateliers Mécaniques de la Madeleine could look at it during more than fifteen minutes. In spite of his binoculars, Mr. François Louions could not say exactly what it was. If this machine were seen from the borough, the peasants of the villages could also look at it all with their ease. Thus Mr. Grangeon, of Bernaud gave the same version as the people of the borough. Peasants of the villages saw a large sphere of lamp. It is certain that all these people were not victims of an hallucination. In addition they could not have acted in concert, since they live at more than four kilometers the ones from the others."
[Ref. lqh1:] NEWSPAPER "LE QUOTIDIEN DE LA HAUTE LOIRE":
Many people saw a luminous object of blood red color of the size of a soccer ball evolving in the sky of Beauzac (Haute-Loire), Tuesday morning [December 7, 1954]. It was approximately 06:15 and the workmen of the Ateliers Mécaniques de la Madeleine could look at it during more than fifteen minutes. In spite of his binoculars, Mr. François Louions could not say exactly what it was. If this machine were seen from the borough, the peasants of the villages could also look at it all with their ease. Thus Mr. Grangeon, of Bernaud gave the same version as the people of the borough. Peasants of the villages saw a large sphere of lamp. It is certain that all these people were not victims of an hallucination. In addition they could not have acted in concert, since they live at more than four kilometers the ones from the others.
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Many people saw a luminous object of blood red color of the size of a soccer ball evolving in the sky of Beauzac (Haute-Loire), Tuesday morning [December 7, 1954]. It was approximately 06:15 and the workmen of the Ateliers Mécaniques de la Madeleine could look at it during more than fifteen minutes. In spite of his binoculars, Mr. François Louions could not say exactly what it was. If this machine were seen from the borough, the peasants of the villages could also look at it all with their ease. Thus Mr. Grangeon, of Bernaud gave the same version as the people of the borough. Peasants of the villages saw a large sphere of lamp. It is certain that all these people were not victims of an hallucination. In addition they could not have acted in concert, since they live at more than four kilometers the ones from the others.
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So we have the date of December 7, 1954, the hour as 06:15 in the morning, the coordinates as 48° 15' 33" North and 4° 05' 56" East, a quarter of an hour in duration, a red color, an assurance of the reality of observation as there were independent witnesses reporting independently.
We have Venus at the azimuth 118° 57' and the low elevation of 5° 8', raised at 05:37 a.m., at the meridian at 10:32. It is at the same time close (49.04 million km) to the Earth but with only 13.42% of its surface lit. The moon is not visible; Sirius is at 234° 33' and the elevation is 7° 30'. Venus, or Sirius, may have been the object seen, but nothing comes to prove it.
There is also the possibility of a meteorological balloon: the sunrise is soon (07:38 a.m.), the sun could have illuminated a balloon "from below" and give it its red color. The simple fact that a number of people have been intrigued separately makes me prefer this explanation to an astronomical explanation, finally.
It should be noted that there was at least one precedent in the Haute-Loire in 1954.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Beauzac, Haute-Loire, multiple, morning, object, luminous, red, duration, binoculars
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | January 30, 2006 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | December 26, 2008 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | November 29, 2018 | Addition of the Summary. Explanations change, was "Not looked for yet. Possibly astronomical." |
