ALSACAT-2020-01-18-STRASBOURGROBERTSAU-1
The website of the regional newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace for January 29, 2020, reported that a thirty-something doctor from the Robertsau district in Strasbourg, passionate about astronomy, wanting to remain anonymous, is investigating his own observation of a "strange luminous dot in the sky of Strasbourg."
He said:
"Saturday morning (January 18), at 8:15 a.m., I was cycling to my workplace in the Robertsau. I saw a large, very bright dot in the sky."
He is used to observing planets and the big white dot reminded him of his naked eye observations of Venus or Jupiter, but "it was much brighter". He checked the ephemeris and found that it is "a priori not a planet in the solar system."
With a "Google" search, he came across an observation of January 17, 2020, reported in the newspaper Ouest-France; in Vannes in the Morbihan there had been "a similar phenomenon", that the air traffic controllers of the airport of Vannes-Meucon had taken out their pairs of binoculars, to see what they thought was "a balloon, and not a satellite", but Météo France had said they released no balloon over Morbihan at that time.
Finding a video of the supposed balloon on YouTube, the Strasbourg doctor thought that was what he had seen.
He called the police to find out what to do next, the police directed him to Entzheim airport, where he reported the light point to the Air Traffic Gendarmerie Brigade (BGTA), which was apparently not interested much.
On January 20, he contacted the Vannes-Meucon airport, where the controllers had no more details to give him than those reported by the press. He was able to contact the North-East Civil Aviation Security Directorate (DSAC) installed at Entzheim airport, he sent them his photos, they consulted the radar recordings for the time and the direction of observation, and found nothing.
The newspaper says that on January 21, 2020, the alleged balloon was reported in the German sky, between Karlsruhe and Stuttgart, where it continued its journey. The newspaper contacted Météo France, which indicates that they did not use a weather balloon recently and that theirs are red.
On January 22, 2020, at the end of the afternoon, neither the BGTA, nor the DSAC, nor the Strasbourg astronomical observatory had more information on the matter.
| Date: | January 18, 2020 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 08:15 a.m. |
| Duration: | ? |
| First known report date: | January 29, 2020 |
| Reporting delay: | 10 days. |
| Department: | Bas-Rhin |
|---|---|
| City: | Strasbourg Robertsau |
| Place: | Outside in Strasbourg's Robertsau district. |
| Latitude: | 48.611 |
| Longitude: | 7.796 |
| Uncertainty radius: | 2 km. |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 1 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 0 |
| Witness(es) ages: | Thirties. |
| Witness(es) types: | Man, doctor, astronomy buff. |
| Reporting channel: | To the regional newspaper DNA. |
|---|---|
| Type of location: | Outside in city. |
| Visibility conditions: | Day. |
| UFO observed: | Yes |
| UFO arrival observed: | No |
| UFO departure observed: | ? |
| Entities: | No |
| Photographs: | No. |
| Sketch(s) by witness(es): | No. |
| Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): | No. |
| Witness(es) feelings: | Puzzled. |
| Witnesses interpretation: | ? |
| Hynek: | DD |
|---|---|
| ALSACAT: | Unidentified, no strangeness reported. |
[Ref. dna1:] WEBSITE OF THE NEWSPAPER "DERNIERES NOUVELLES D'ALSACE":
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Strasbourg Issue
After observing a strange luminous dot in the sky of Strasbourg, a doctor from the Robertsau passionate about astronomy carried out his investigation. So, just a weather balloon?
By Hugo BOSSARD - Jan 29, 2020 at 2:54 PM | updated Jan 30, 2020 at 07:40 am - Reading time: 3 min
Viewed 30404 times
[Photo caption:] Is the object photographed in Brittany and published on Facebook the same as the one seen in the sky over Strasbourg? Facebook - Sophie Kerblat
Perhaps you saw in the sky of Strasbourg, ten days ago, an unusual dot of light. Enough for the puzzling the curious and worry the anxious. Valentin [*], in his thirties, a Strasbourg doctor passionate about astronomy, decided to conduct his own investigation.
"Saturday morning (January 18), at 8:15 a.m., I was cycling to my workplace in the Robertsau. I saw a large, very bright dot in the sky," said the young man. He is used to observing planets. And this big white dot reminds him of his observations with the naked eye of Venus or Jupiter. "But it was much brighter." With a "sky map" application on his iPhone, Valentin first checks whether a star is in this direction. Nope, the luminous point is not a priori a planet of the solar system.
Second reflex: the doctor relies on a Google search. He falls on his first serious lead. The day before, Friday January 17, our colleagues from Ouest-France in Vannes (Morbihan) published an article describing a similar phenomenon. It is written there that the air traffic controllers at Vannes-Meucon airport took out their pairs of binoculars. What they saw seemed to them to be "a balloon, not a satellite". They continue: "We called Météo France because it looks strangely like a weather balloon but the meteorologists confirmed that they were not currently flying anything over Morbihan". On YouTube, Valentin finds a video of the flying object also shot in the Morbihan. Therefore, our investigator is convinced to have seen in the Strasbourg sky the same thing as the Britton observers the day before.
"I wanted to warn the authorities," says the thirty-something. I called the police to find out what to do." Disconcerted, officials direct him "possibly" to the Entzheim airport. There, he reported the light dot to the Air Traffic Gendarmerie Brigade (BGTA). "Apparently, it does not interest many people that an object, perhaps a stray balloon or other, crossed all of France by air", he is surprised.
[Photo caption:] Made of rubber and filled with helium, weather balloons can carry measuring devices aloft. Photo DNA
Since then, the file has made little progress. Monday, January 20, Valentin contacted the Vannes-Meucon airport, where the controllers had no more details to give him than those reported by our colleagues from Ouest-France. He also managed to exchange views with the North-East Civil Aviation Safety Directorate (DSAC), located at the Entzheim airport. "I sent them my photos. They were able to search their radar archives by referring to the time and direction of my sighting. They found nothing and told me that a balloon could lose its signal.", says the doctor.
On Tuesday January 21, the presence of the alleged balloon was reported in the German sky, between Karlsruhe and Stuttgart, where it continued its journey. Contacted by us, Météo France employees specify that they have not recently used a weather balloon and that theirs are red. On Wednesday 22 January at the end of the afternoon, neither the BGTA, nor the DSAC, nor the Strasbourg astronomical observatory had more information on this matter.
"Either it does not interest anyone, or it interests the crackpots," regrets Valentin, after having read some fuzzy theories on the Internet. If it was in all likelihood a weather balloon, it is still difficult to establish its origin.
(*) The first name has been changed
|
Bravo to the doctor for his spirit of curiosity. On the other hand, the newspaper seems more interested in the reactions than in the correct report of the observation: we are talking about photos, they are not available; we speak of direction, it is not given; nothing is said about the duration; we hear about a sky map but we do not get the angular height, nothing is said about a displacement, change of position, etc.
It therefore seems difficult to me to verify certain possible explanations.
I don't think an ordinary weather balloon would have flown from Morbihan to Germany; if it was a balloon, it was a high altitude research balloon, not an ordinary weather balloon.
But many other explanations are possible, which I can neither defend nor refute due to the cruel lack of information:
An airplane or a helicopter with its headlights, or a "LED balloon", or a "Skytracer", or...
What appears to me above all is that no particular strangeness seems to have been reported there.
Unidentified, no strangeness reported.
* = 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 |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Create/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | July 9, 2021 | Creation, [dna1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | July 9, 2021 | First published. |
