ALSACAT:

ALSACAT is my comprehensive catalog of UFO sighting reports in Alsace, the region is the North-East of France, whether they are "explained" or "unexplained".

The ALSACAT catalog is made of case files with a case number, summary, quantitative information (date, location, number of witnesses...), classifications, all sources mentioning the case with their references, a discussion of the case in order to evaluate its causes, and a history of the changes made to the file. A general index and thematic sub-catalogs give access to these Alsatian case files.

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Case of Rauwiller, on May 8, 1969:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1969-05-08-RAUWILLER-1

Summary:

In the UFOVNI bulletin for the third quarter 2008, by the Groupe d'Etudes et de Recherches Ufologiques (GERU) based in the North of France, we learn that a Mr. P. Buhler, from Rauwiller in the Bas-Rhin, noticed on May 8, 1969, at 09:15 p.m., an object brighter than Jupiter by 1 magnitude, flying in the south to north direction with strong perturbations in its trajectory.

It took ten minutes to get from one horizon to the other.

UFOVNI did not provide any source refernce; but I ended up finding via a better quote made by ufologist Gilles Durand in 1998, that this report appears in L'Astronomie, the bulletin of the Astronomical Society of France, in the volume 83 on page 376 for 1969.

The bulletin cited this as coming from P. Buhler of Rauwiller, among other such "suspicious objects" by other witnesses, on which the magazine expressed that it was probably most of the time satellites, but that the information too imprecise in general did not allow firm identification.

Data:

Temporal data:

Date:	May 8, 1969
Time:	~09:15 p.m.
Duration:	10 minutes.
First known report date:	2008
Reporting delay:	4 decades.

Geographical data:

Department:	Bas-Rhin
City:	Rauwiller
Place:	?
Latitude:	48.811
Longitude:	7.108
Uncertainty radius:	6 km

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses:	1
Number of known witnesses:	1
Number of named witnesses:	1
Witness(es) ages:	?
Witness(es) types:	Man.

Ufology data:

Reporting channel:	Ufology bulletin UFOVNI.
Type of location:	?
Visibility conditions:	Night.
UFO observed:	Yes
UFO arrival observed:	?
UFO departure observed:	Yes
Entities:	No
Photographs:	No.
Sketch(s) by witness(es):	No.
Sketch(es) approved by witness(es):	No.
Witness(es) feelings:	?
Witnesses interpretation:	NL

Classifications:

Hynek:	NL
ALSACAT:	Unidentified but low strangeness and sparese information.

Sources:

[Ref. saf1:] SOCIETE ASTRONOMIQUE DE FRANCE:

We frequently receive communications relating to sightings of suspicious objects. Much of it appear to be artificial satellites. Unfortunately, the lack of precision does not allow us to take advantage of all these observations. Let us quote however [...]

[... other cases...]

Mr. P. Bulher, of Rauwiller (Bas-Rhin), noticed on May 8 [1969], around 9:15 p.m. approximately, the presence of an object brighter than Jupiter by one a magnitude and moving in the South-North direction with strong disturbances in its trajectory. It took 10 minutes to get from one horizon to the other.

[Ref. gdd1:] GILLES DURAND:

This ufologist reproduced the source [saf1], referenced as such but without the page number.

[Ref. uoi1:] "UFOVNI" BULLETIN:

From Mr. P. Buhler, of RAUWILLER ( Bas-Rhin ). Has noticed that on May 8, 1969, at about 09:15 p.m. approximately, the presence of an object more brilliant than Jupiter od 1 magnitude and going in the south-north direction with strong perturbations in its trajectory. It took ten minutes to go from one horizon to the other.

[Ref. spa1:] "SPICA" UFOLOGY ASSOCIATION:

City	Date and hour of observation	General shape Identification	General color Hypothesis	Conclusion
RAUWILLER	Wednesday 8 May 1968 21:15	luminous dot Unidentified	information not communicated None	Unsolved -lack of info

Discussion:

It is hard to get a good idea of what was seen; this seems actually not very weird, with a small size for example. The erratic trajectory should have been described with details.

Evaluation:

Unidentified but low strangeness and sparse information.

Sources references:

* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.

[saf1] * "Catalogue d'Objets Suspects", in the bulletin L'Astronomie, of the Société Astronomique de France, France, volume 83, page 376, 1969.
[gdd1] * Catalogue by Gilles Durand, in the ufology magazine Les Mystères de l'Est, CNEGU, France, annusl, #4, page 103, 1998.
[uoi1] * Bulletin UFOVNI, by the Groupement d'Etudes et de Recherches Ufologiques (GERU), France, #86, third quarter, page 3, 2008.
[spa1] * "DEPARTEMENT 67 - BAS-RHIN", listing of UFO sighting reports by the Alsatian ufology group SPICA, Alsace, France, not dated, found in May 2015, at http://www.spica.org/Page_Listing_67.htm

File history:

Authoring:

Main author:	Patrick Gross
Contributors:	None
Reviewers:	None
Editeur:	Patrick Gross

Changes history:

Version:	Create/changed by:	Date:	Description:
0.1	Patrick Gross	September 2, 2015	Creation, [uoi1], [spa1].
1.0	Patrick Gross	September 2, 2015	First published.
1.1	Patrick Gross	May 30, 2021	Addition [saf1], [gdd1]. In the Summary, addition of the information from [saf1] and [gdd1].

This page was last updated on May 30, 2021.