ALSACAT-2000-09-10-STRASBOURG-1
A report was recorded on the website "Ovnipage", about an observation in Strasbourg on the night from September 9 to 10, 2000.
A security officer reported that during his night round, he was watching the sky of that very clear night and could see the stars well.
Then he saw a kind of formation of five or six orange colored dots of light, coming from the south-east and going slowly to the northwest.
The formation was showing a geometric shape like a diamond with the most advanced part at its bottom, much like a kite.
These lights seemed spaced of several kilometers and while moving they kept the same distances from each other. He said that you "would have thought that a piece of the sky was unhooked and moved without noise in the sky."
Amazed, he radioed his colleague and asked him to get out of the building, go to the parking lot and describe what he would see, but the colleague just said "What is this thing?"
After about 10 minutes, the formation "reversed" as if the diamond was rotated horizontally, stretching its longest tip to a northwest direction, accelerating, while the other dots gradually disappeared without taking any altitude.
The last one then disappeared or was hidden by the building, all this still occurring in silence.
The witness says he does not claim to know what he and his colleague had seen, but that it really was not common.
| Date: | September 9 or 10, 2000 |
|---|---|
| Time: | Night |
| Duration: | ~10 minutes or more. |
| First known report date: | September 11, 2000 |
| Reporting delay: | Hours, 1 day. |
| Department: | Bas-Rhin |
|---|---|
| City: | Strasbourg |
| Place: | From a parking lot near a building, UFO in the sky. |
| Latitude: | 48.581 |
| Longitude: | 7.747 |
| Uncertainty radius: | 10 km |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 2 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 1 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 0 |
| Witness(es) ages: | Adults. |
| Witness(es) types: | Night watchmen. |
| Reporting channel: | Published on the UFO website "ovnipage". |
|---|---|
| Type of location: | From a parking lot near a building, UFO in the sky. |
| 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: | Puzzled. |
| Witnesses interpretation: | Unidentified. |
| Hynek: | NL |
|---|---|
| ALSACAT: | Probable Chinese lanterns. |
[Ref. ope1:] "OVNIPAGE" WEBSITE:
A646 France: Observation dept 67 (Alsace)
Date : 09/10/2000 17:03:30 Paris, Madrid (Summer Time)
From: vincent.leier@evc.net (vincent leier)
To: opnpdc@aol.com (ovnipage)
Strasbourg(alsace) in the night from september 9 to 10, 2000
During my night round (I work in security) i observed the sky carefully, telling to myself that the night was very clear and that you could see the stars well... Now, I see a kind of formation of orange colored luminous dots in all 5 or 6, starting from the south-east and going slowly to the northwest, this formation was in a geometric shape like a diamond with the most pointed part was a bit lower (much like a kite) the lights seemed spaced of several kilometers but kept as they moved the same distance from each other! One would think that a piece of the sky was unhooked and moved quietly in the sky ... aback i radioed my colleague and asked him to get out of the building to the parking lot and describe what he sees ... I got only a "What's that thing!" After a while (about 10 minutes) the formation "reversed" ie you take the diamond that I described earlier and you have it to the horizontal, the big tip of the rhombus long stretching towards the north west direction in an acceleration while the other tips behind gradually disappeared without taking altitude! The last dot was now disappearing behind the building... still silently.
I do not claim to know what we saw but it really was not ordinary! This is about all i can say on that pehnomenon and if other people saw it i wish they would come forward .
[Ref. ip1:] "IPANI" WEBSITE:
A646 France: Observation dept 67 (Alsace)
Date : 09/10/2000 17:03:30 Paris, Madrid (Summer Time)
From: vincent.leier@evc.net (vincent leier)
To: opnpdc@aol.com (ovnipage)
Strasbourg(alsace) in the night from september 9 to 10, 2000
During my night round (I work in security) i observed the sky carefully, telling to myself that the night was very clear and that you could see the stars well... Now, I see a kind of formation of orange colored luminous dots in all 5 or 6, starting from the south-east and going slowly to the northwest, this formation was in a geometric shape like a diamond with the most pointed part was a bit lower (much like a kite) the lights seemed spaced of several kilometers but kept as they moved the same distance from each other! One would think that a piece of the sky was unhooked and moved quietly in the sky ... aback i radioed my colleague and asked him to get out of the building to the parking lot and describe what he sees ... I got only a "What's that thing!" After a while (about 10 minutes) the formation "reversed" ie you take the diamond that I described earlier and you have it to the horizontal, the big tip of the rhombus long stretching towards the north west direction in an acceleration while the other tips behind gradually disappeared without taking altitude! The last dot was now disappearing behind the building... still silently.
I do not claim to know what we saw but it really was not ordinary! This is about all i can say on that pehnomenon and if other people saw it i wish they would come forward .
[Ref. uwb1:] "UFOWEB" WEBSITE:
2000/039: Observation in Strasbourg in the night from September 9 to 10, 2000
Strasbourg (Alsace) in the night from September 9 to 10, 2000
During my night round (I work in security) i observed the sky carefully, telling to myself that the night was very clear and that you could see the stars well... Now, I see a kind of formation of orange colored luminous dots in all 5 or 6, starting from the south-east and going slowly to the northwest, this formation was in a geometric shape like a diamond with the most pointed part was a bit lower (much like a kite) the lights seemed spaced of several kilometers but kept as they moved the same distance from each other! One would think that a piece of the sky was unhooked and moved quietly in the sky ... aback i radioed my colleague and asked him to get out of the building to the parking lot and describe what he sees ... I got only a "What's that thing!" After a while (about 10 minutes) the formation "reversed" ie you take the diamond that I described earlier and you have it to the horizontal, the big tip of the rhombus long stretching towards the north west direction in an acceleration while the other tips behind gradually disappeared without taking altitude! The last dot was now disappearing behind the building... still silently. I do not claim to know what we saw but it really was not ordinary!
UPDATES ON 09/11/00
Note: The web page starts with this caution warning; "WARNING: The information published in this section are given for information only. The possibilities of misinterpretations, hoaxes... are not ruled out."
[Ref. uwb2:] "UFOWEB" WEBSITE:
| Strasbourg | September 10, 2000 Night | Department 67 | Bas-Rhin | |
| Latitude | Longitude | |||
| Witnesses | Objects | Shapes | 53,981 | 6.012 |
| 2 | 5 | Points | 48° 35' 04'' | 07° 44' 55'' |
| Type | Duration | Colors | Source | |
| 10mn | Orange | Ovnipage | ||
|
During my night round (I work in security) i observed the sky carefully, telling to myself that the night was very clear and that you could see the stars well... Now, I see a kind of formation of orange colored luminous dots in all 5 or 6, starting from the south-east and going slowly to the northwest, this formation was in a geometric shape like a diamond with the most pointed part was a bit lower (much like a kite) the lights seemed spaced of several kilometers but kept as they moved the same distance from each other! One would think that a piece of the sky was unhooked and moved quietly in the sky ... aback i radioed my colleague and asked him to get out of the building to the parking lot and describe what he sees ... I got only a "What's that thing!" After a while (about 10 minutes) the formation "reversed" ie you take the diamond that I described earlier and you have it to the horizontal, the big tip of the rhombus long stretching towards the north west direction in an acceleration while the other tips behind gradually disappeared without taking altitude! The last dot was now disappearing behind the building... still silently. I do not claim to know what we saw but it really was not ordinary! |
||||
[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN - "BASE OVNI FRANCE":
General features
| Num Base: | 1826 |
| Département: | Bas Rhin (67) |
| Place of observation: | Strasbourg |
| Latitude: | 48.583 |
| Longitude: | +7.75 |
| Date of observation: | September 10, 2000 |
| Hour: | Hour not known |
| Duration (HH:MM:SS): | N.C. |
| Weather: | Nice weather, clear sky |
| Type of observation: | |
| Nbr of witness(es): | 2 |
| Official investigation: | No |
Features of the object
| Nbr of object: | 5 |
| Type of object: | Not-defined |
| Size: | Not specified |
| Color: | Orange |
| Luminosity: | Not specified |
| Visual characteristics: | No indication |
| Speed: | not defined |
| Movement/Displacement: | One or more turns |
| Object on the ground: | No |
| Instantaneous disappearance: | No |
Observation
The witness does his round as night watchman when he observes in the sky a formation of bright orange color spots forming a large rhombus and at a distance always equal from each other. He contacts a second guard by radio who also observes the phenomenon. After ten minutes, the formation rotates, the dots gaining speed and heading to the northwest, the others fading gradually.
Sources
UFOWEB by Gamb Patrick ** http://ufoweb.free.fr
[Ref. spa1:] UFOLOGY GROUP "SPICA":
| City | Date and hour of observation | General shape Identification |
General color Hypothesis |
Conclusion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| STRASBOURG | Sunday 10 September 2000 | luminous dot Unidentified |
orange None |
Unsolved -lack of info |
|
The author of the report is right: this was not common. At least in 2000.
Actually everything here indicates that it was Chinese lanterns, and this is probably the oldest case of Chinese lanterns of the "modern era" (1990 to now). Chinese lanterns will be a common cause of UFO sighting reports in Alsace after 2005 and in the following years - there were such cases in previous decades, but rare.
In 2000, there was certainly no abundance of Chinese lanterns resellers on the French web, in fact I found none. The few lanterns seen in France usually came from people who visited Thailand and brought some back to France.
I would add that according to "Infoclimat" the winds that night were to 10°, roughly from south to north, which is not opposed to the direction given by the witness.
|
Above:
A Chinese lantern.
Probable Chinese lanterns.
* = 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 | December 12, 2014 | Creation, [uwb1], [uwb2], [lcn1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | December 12, 2014 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | December 17, 2014 | Additions [ope1], [ip1]. Sighting date changed from "September 10, 2000" to "September 9 or 10, 2000". |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | June 12, 2015 | Addition [spa1]. |
