PLOUESCAT (29) 03.04.2016

On 3 April 2016 at 22:10, a witness on his doorstep noticed a very bright phenomenon to the right of his village church’s bell tower. It emitted coloured light, first blue then red, without sound, and was eventually lost from view at 22:45. He took 2 photographs. Only 1 account was collected. GEIPAN identifies Sirius. At low elevations and under some atmospheric conditions, Sirius can appear to change colour and give a misleading impression. A geometric reconstruction using the witness’s photograph and estimated camera position placed Sirius within 1–2° of the UAP. The reported direction and speed of movement also match Sirius. GEIPAN rules out a sky lantern, although one could plausibly have been released on a Sunday evening. This would require the witness not to have seen Sirius because cloud hid it, whereas he reported a clear sky. The wind direction recorded by Infoclimat fits the movement, but its speed of 10 km/h would give a lantern at 200 m altitude and 600 m distance, calculated from the elevation, an angular speed far greater than observed. GEIPAN states that this remains true even if the local wind were 10 times weaker than the weather station’s measurement a few kilometres away. GEIPAN therefore classifies the case A: Sirius.