ALSACAT-1975-09-26-COLMAR-1
The regional newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace for September 28-29, 1975, wondered if a UFO, or a satellite, or "a meteorite", was in the heaven of Colmar on September 26, 1975.
The newspaper reported that several people had said that a very bright flying object was seen that night in the sky above Colmar towards the East.
Witnesses had observed it between 8 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. and according to their estimation, it was about 300 meters above the ground.
It extinguished once in a while, and eventually disappeared completely.
| Date: | September 26, 1975 |
|---|---|
| Time: | Between 08:00 p.m. and 09:15 p.m. |
| Duration: | 01:15? |
| First known report date: | September 28, 1975 |
| Reporting delay: | 2 days. |
| Department: | Haut-Rhin |
|---|---|
| City: | Colmar |
| Place: | ? |
| Latitude: | 48.080 |
| Longitude: | 7.357 |
| Uncertainty radius: | 3 km |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | Several. |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | Several. |
| Number of named witnesses: | 0 |
| Witness(es) ages: | ? |
| Witness(es) types: | ? |
| Reporting channel: | The regional Press. |
|---|---|
| Type of location: | ? |
| Visibility conditions: | Nightfall. |
| UFO observed: | Yes |
| UFO arrival observed: | ? |
| UFO departure observed: | ? |
| Entities: | No |
| Photographs: | No. |
| Sketch(s) by witness(es): | No. |
| Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): | No. |
| Witness(es) feelings: | ? |
| Witnesses interpretation: | ? |
| Hynek: | NL |
|---|---|
| ALSACAT: | Unidentified, insufficient information. |
[Ref. dna1:] NEWSPAPER "DERNIERES NOUVELLES D'ALSACE":
Several people alerted us that a very bright flying object was visible Friday evening in the sky above Colmar in the eastern direction. Witnesses managed to observe it between 8 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.. According to their estimate, it was at about 300 meters in height. Turning off from time to time, it finally disappeared completely. Was it a satellite or a meteorite? In any case an unidentified flying object to add to the long list alreay existing.
[Ref. cvn2:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:
Former journalist Christian Valentin published in 2012 a very interesting book telling the story of UFO sightings, flying saucers sightings, in Alsace, from the beginning to 1980.
In this book, he reports that this case of Friday, September 26, 1975, was reported in Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace for Sunday 28 and Monday 29 of September 1975:
Several people alerted us that a very bright flying object was visible Friday evening in the sky above Colmar in the eastern direction. Witnesses managed to observe it between 8 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.. According to their estimate, it was at about 300 meters in height. Turning off from time to time, it finally disappeared completely. Was it a satellite or a meteorite? In any case an unidentified flying object to add to the long list alreay existing.
|
It is not at all my habit to "advertise" a book or anything, and I have no interested relationship with the author, but I wanted to say a word on the book by Christian Valentin, "Mythes et Réalités des Phénomènes Aériens Non Identifiés" (i.e. "Myths and Realities of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" (cover on the left) , ref. [cv2]; which, as its subtitle indicates, is about Alsatian UFO sighting reports and the saucer lore in Alsace.
I think Alsatian ufologists and generally people interested in the UFO question, or in the history of Alsace, my region, would probably like this book.
The 144 pages book is sober but well presented, unbiased, richly documented and illustrated. It is the first work in print specifically about UFO sightings in Alsace. (There was another one a few years ago, but it was partly made by copying - pasting without mention of the sources, portions of my website, especially the Alsatians cases I almost exhaustively documented in my catalog of UFO sightings in France in 1954, and copies from another websites; the trivial explanations I proposed or gave there being almost always stripped off!)
The author does not want to prove or disprove the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors or some other so-called "extraordinary" explanation, he rather offers a chronologically ordered review of Alsatian UFO reports, starting from the origin and stopping in 1980, based on known sources ufology, on the articles of the regional Press, and cases less known or even unreleased so far that he collected directly with the witnesses. His own comments are printed in a different color, references to the sources are always given. A very nice work in my opinion!
The author currently has a blog where he shows what libraries in Alsace have the book available, see: christian.valentin.overblog.com
|
The journalist author of the article of the "DN" does not seem to be very skilled in astronomy. A "meteorite" that stands in the sky "between 8 p.m. and 9:15 p.m." and goes on and off occasionally, this seems rather doubtful...
It would have been better to collect detailed information, such as the brightness, the angular size, the direction, the elevation, the nature of any move, etc.
However, let's check the presence of celestial bodies in the East from Colmar at that time.
At 08:05 p.m., Jupiter rises from the horizon. We have stars, but none shines in a particularly powerful way. Venus and Mars are not visible. So the only candidate is Jupiter, but at 08:00 p.m. it is still just below the horizon and if the observation is made from Colmar, obstacles to the view do not let it be seen from 8 p.m. already. And it does not disappear, it becomes increasingly obvious as it rises in the sky - except if clouds hid it of course.
Unidentified, insufficient information.
* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.
| Main author: | Patrick Gross |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editeur: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Create/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | September 19, 2015 | Creation, [dna1], [cvn2]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | September 19, 2015 | First published. |
