This article was published in the daily newspaper Le Journal de Saône-et-Loire, France, on February 22, 2007.
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"You would say six luminous points moving together, drawing arabesques, sometimes compact, sometimes wide."
Following the article published in our Monday issue about the mysterious lights in the sky, an inhabitant of Saint-Léger-les-Paray forwarded strange photographs to us. Three evenings in a row, between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., in the direction of the south-west, Jojo Melot, former mayor of the community, managed to contemplate this strange phenomenon from the window of his bedroom. Eternally eternally, he did not fail to take photographs of them.
"I always looks at the stars. Saturday evening, I was attracted by a scintillating star, larger than the others, and which is not there usually. The first time, I did not see it a long time for I noticed it rather late and it went down slowly with the rotation of the Earth to disappear behind the horizon. The next day, getting at it earlier, I managed to see it long enough. I took a series of photographs with my digital camera, using the zoom. Each photograph, always taken quickly one after the other, shows a different shape. You would say six luminous points moving together, drawing arabesques, sometimes compact, sometimes wide. A little like a flight of starlings, as the witness said in the newspaper on Monday. The luminous form was present three evening in a row but each day it moved a little more on the left. And Tuesday evening I dis see anything anymore. Since, it disappeared or there were too many clouds. I do not know what that can be, but it is really weird."
S. Bonnardot
February 17, 2007 at 08:00 p.m., ("Saturday evening"), Venus was at azimuth 261°28' and an elevation of 4°24' there, with a particularly strong brightness in those days since 89 % of its surface were lit by the sun. In fact, Venus was so much remarkably brilliant and quite visible there in these days that I had myself taken some time in evening to gaze at it, thinkking that with such brightness, UFO reports would possibly come up...
And of course, just like described by the former mayor, it slowly descended with rotation of the Earth to disappear behind the horizon, towards 20:20.
Still as the former mayor reported, the next day, as he looked at it earlier, he could observe it longer, and take photographs.
And on the fourth day, the former mayor does provide an explanation of the "disappearance" of the supposed UFO: "Since, it disappeared, or then there were too many clouds."
These photographs which he took using the zoom with a digital camera seem to show some other thing than Venus; but it is not the case: quite simply the very shake when the zoom is used simply accounts for this effect, as everyone can check with his/her own camera. It is not at all a trace of a move of the UFO, but a trace of the move of the camera.
The newspaper mentions a "witness in the newspaper of Monday" speaking about something "like a flight of starlings"; but in addition to the photographs which show in fact Venus and do not resemble at all a photographs of a flight of birds, it is not the same witness nor the same observation, as will be specified in the issue of the newspaper the next day.
