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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 Mulhouse, on August 25, 1958:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1958-08-25-MULHOUSE-1

Summary:

An article in the Mulhouse issue of the regional newspaper L'Alsace for August 26, 1958, reported that an "unidentified object" was seen in the sky of Mulhouse the day before, August 25, 1955, at approximately 04:15 p.m.

Children and one adult observed from the courtyard of a building in the street of the Runtz an oval-shaped object that stood out in the sky.

The object slowly followed a Southeast to East path, then went in the opposite direction before disappearing (or being lost from sight).

The witnesses had categorically denied that it could have been a balloon, a plane, or any other known flying machine.

Data:

Temporal data:

Date: August 25, 1958
Time: ~04:15 p.m.
Duration: ?
First known report date: August 28, 1958
Reporting delay: Hours, 3 days.

Geographical data:

Department: Haut-Rhin
City: Mulhouse
Place: From a building in the rue du Runtz, UFO in the sky.
Latitude: 47.752
Longitude: 7.333
Uncertainty radius: 250 m

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses: Several.
Number of known witnesses: 1 to 3 or more.
Number of named witnesses: 0
Witness(es) ages: 1 adults, several children.
Witness(es) types: 1 adult and several children.

Ufology data:

Reporting channel: The regional Press.
Type of location: From a building in a city street, UFO in the sky.
Visibility conditions: Daylight.
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: Not a balloon and no known aircraft.

Classifications:

Hynek: DD
ALSACAT: Insufficient information.

Sources:

[Ref. lae1:] NEWSPAPER "L'ALSACE":

In the sky of Mulhouse: an unidentified object...

Children and an adult persone saw yesterday at approximately 4:15 p.m. in Mulhouse, from the courtyard of a building in the street of the Runtz, an oval object that stood out in the sky. The "thing" followed a slow path southeast to east, then in the opposite direction before disappearing. These observers formally deny that it could have been a balloon, a plane or any other known flying machine.

[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 the Newspaper L'Alsace for Thursday, August 28, 1958, reported in their Mulhouse issue an observation on Monday, August 25, 1958, in Mulhouse:

In the sky of MULHOUSE: an unidentified object...

Children and an adult persone saw yesterday at approximately 4:15 p.m. in Mulhouse, from the courtyard of a building in the street of the Runtz, an oval object that stood out in the sky. The "thing" followed a slow path southeast to east, then in the opposite direction before disappearing. These observers formally deny that it could have been a balloon, a plane or any other known flying machine.

Discussion:

Scan.

About Christian Valentin's book:

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

Carte.

The information given by the newspaper is obviously totally insufficient to deliver any sure explanation.

Evaluation:

Insufficient information.

Sources references:

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

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 November 27, 2014 Creation, [lae1], [cvn2].
1.0 Patrick Gross November 27, 2014 First published.

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This page was last updated on November 27, 2014.