TOURNON-SAINT-PIERRE (37) 23.03.2020

On 23 March 2020 at 23:08 local time, a witness in his courtyard observed a stationary light toward the south or southwest and filmed it with a camcorder. The source summary describes a prolonged observation. Only 1 account was collected; he supplied 3 video frames showing the apparent shape. A Street View image supplied by the witness marked its position. Using that and Google Earth, GEIPAN estimated azimuth 240° and elevation about 30°. Stellarium placed Procyon within a few degrees of those coordinates at that time. Procyon, with apparent magnitude 0.37, is among the sky's brightest stars, and the reported color and brightness fit it. GEIPAN attributes the apparent strangeness mainly to the camcorder images. The source explains that this equipment cannot produce an enlarged resolved image of such a star or planet because of defocusing: zooming on a distant light point creates optical and electronic artifacts, while chromatic aberrations associated with defocusing produce the various colors. It refers to ETUPES (25) 22.08.2017. GEIPAN classifies the case A: certain observation of Procyon.