(DPT) ARDENNES (08) 30.10.1957

Between 23:30 on 30 October 1957 and 01:30 on 31 October, several groups in the Ardennes reported what GEIPAN described as two distinct luminous phenomena. At 23:40, a group at Louvergny saw a large, stationary red disc to the west. At 23:50 it seemed to separate into two parts before disappearing. An astronomical check placed the Moon at azimuth 245 degrees and elevation 30 degrees, appearing as a tilted half-disc. The reported elevation and shape did not fit the Moon well. At 23:50, another group about 100 metres from the Novy-Chevrières railway crossing saw a red luminous object pass through the cloudy sky in the direction of the town. No sound was heard. The Moon lay in that direction, and moving clouds might have caused a misidentification. However, the object's reported movement did not fit that explanation well. Also at 23:50, a group at Ambly-Fleury saw a red glow pass across the sky in the same viewing direction; this too could have been a brief view of the Moon through a gap in the clouds. Another group, on the RN46 between Pauvres and Mazagran that night, saw a small object with green reflections move rapidly approximately southeast to northwest for a few tens of seconds. The source does not give its exact time. GEIPAN considered this description suggestive of a meteor or fireball. GEIPAN classified these observations C because information and cross-checks were insufficient. Lunar misidentifications and a meteor were possible explanations, but the evidence was not precise enough to confirm them.