SAINTES (17) 21.03.2016

On 21 March 2016 at 23:00, a witness in Saintes (17) saw a stationary, very bright white round object to the south, left of the Moon. No particular sound was heard. He watched with the naked eye and then binoculars for 1 hour. By 04:00 it had completely disappeared. No other account was collected. GEIPAN identifies Jupiter, noting that observers can be surprised by the planet's brightness compared with stars and lack of scintillation. The witness attributed Moon-like brightness and enormous size to it, although his drawing showed it much smaller than the Moon. GEIPAN considers the identification certain because the described path relative to the Moon over a 5-hour span, together with the drawing, exactly matches the sky that night. The reconstruction in the referenced PowerPoint places Jupiter left of the Moon. The visible star described on the right was either Alphard, magnitude 1.95, below and to the right as in the drawing, or Regulus, magnitude 1.35, above and to the right. GEIPAN classifies the case A: misidentification of Jupiter.