SAINT-URCIZE (15) 20.09.2024

On 20 September 2024, the main witness T1 was on holiday with his wife T2 after exploring Corrèze and Cantal. They spent the night in a rented camper van on a minimally equipped parking area near Nasbinals, surrounded by bare hills, close to the La Peyrade and Le Bès watercourses along the RD 987. At 22:23, on stepping outside, T1 noticed a bright point to the northwest. It seemed to twinkle and change from yellowish white to red. T2 joined him when alerted but soon returned inside because of cold and wind. T1 placed it above Baboyères hill toward Saint-Urcize (15), below the clouds. Without precise visual references, he filmed it on his smartphone at 22:25, using zoom and no flash, for 1 minute 29 seconds. A burst of 4 photographs at 22:26 showed different light shapes. Still intrigued, he went out again and recorded a second video lasting 1 minute 35 seconds. GEIPAN considers the case well substantiated because the photographs and videos could be used in the investigation. Only 1 hypothesis was explored: the first-magnitude star Arcturus. Supporting elements were: - A geographic reconstruction from T1's material, especially a daytime photograph indicating the UAP's sky position, placed it reasonably near Arcturus. Stellarium gave Arcturus's position as about azimuth 287° and elevation 9° (AC_astro_1). T1 estimated the UAP at azimuth 280° (AC_geo_1) and elevation 30°–45°. The azimuth discrepancy of less than 10° can reflect difficulty orienting himself on a completely dark night without landmarks in an unfamiliar place. The elevation discrepancy, described as about 20°–35°, can reflect a common witness overestimate. His other descriptions, “above the hill” and “a little above the horizon,” support a fairly low elevation. - Strong twinkling: the cold and wind reported by T1 fit substantial atmospheric disturbances causing a star low on the horizon to scintillate. - A prolonged sighting is typical of an astronomical phenomenon. T1 also compared the UAP with Venus. The horizon allowed a first-magnitude star to remain visible. His sense of strangeness came from apparent movement in the videos, although the light stayed in the same area of sky for a long time. At very high zoom, even tiny hand movements imperceptible to the person holding the phone become visible on video. As T1 noted, no landscape landmarks appeared in the videos that could have shown the UAP was not actually moving. Whether any movement was perceived with the naked eye remains unclear in the account. Such movement could be explained by tiny eye movements. GEIPAN classifies the case A: observation of Arcturus.