ARCS (LES) (83) 18.12.2014

On 18 December 2014 at about 21:00, 2 witnesses in Les Arcs (83) were puzzled by a light in the sky. Viewed with a camera's zoom, it appeared multicolored and moved in all directions. The witness described something like an unusually large, flashing star, then interpreted it as a highly mobile luminous object resembling a kite. The sighting lasted 1 hour. From near the railway station, the witness roughly placed it above Draguignan, corresponding to azimuth 335°–360°. Draguignan itself cannot be seen directly from that location, so GEIPAN considers this bearing estimate probably approximate. At 21:24, the very bright star Vega was at 8.4° elevation and azimuth 317°. Contacted by telephone, the witness reported seeing the same light in approximately the same place on several consecutive evenings. GEIPAN considers that a point of light near the horizon watched for almost an hour on successive evenings strongly suggests a star. It attributes the color changes to scintillation caused by atmospheric turbulence, and the apparent oscillation to scintillation combined with the autokinetic illusion, a common perceptual effect when looking at a point of light in darkness. The source refers to its explanation of perceived motion of a point of light in the sky. Because the viewing direction is imprecise, the star cannot be identified with certainty. GEIPAN classifies the case as B: probable observation of a star above the horizon, with Vega a good candidate.