TOURS (37) 14.02.2023

On 14 February 2023 at 01:30, a witness closing his shutters at home saw a twinkling point apparently larger than a star. He first thought of an airplane, but after 10 minutes, and especially when he returned around 03:00, it seemed still present in the same place. Scintillation was intense, clear and regular, with rapid color changes from red to white to green. He photographed and filmed it, but the images showed no colors and were blurred, probably because of strong zoom. Having lived in the town for over 50 years, he identified the position and direction precisely. Only one account was collected. The account, video and two photographs document the case well. Initial strangeness came largely from apparently random color changes and the assumption of one object, which the investigation disproved (see investigation report). It attributes color changes to atmospheric and temperature effects involving diffraction, turbulence, refraction, absorption and scattering. The witness's subjective strangeness cannot be quantified, but the investigators understand his questions during the sighting and especially on reviewing the images. The analysis identifies two different stars in separate phases: Betelgeuse and Procyon. Their positions at the two observation times, together with a nearby building hiding Betelgeuse's setting, understandably led him to think one fixed point remained in the clear sky. Supporting features are intense color-changing scintillation, a point-like star appearance and apparent stationarity. GEIPAN classifies the case A: observations of Betelgeuse and Procyon.