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ALSACAT:

ALSACAT is my comprehensive catalog of UFO sighting reports in Alsace, the region is the North-East of France, whether they are "explained" or "unexplained".

The ALSACAT catalog is made of case files with a case number, summary, quantitative information (date, location, number of witnesses...), classifications, all sources mentioning the case with their references, a discussion of the case in order to evaluate its causes, and a history of the changes made to the file. A general index and thematic sub-catalogs give access to these Alsatian case files.

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Case of Colmar, on October 16, 1954:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1954-10-16-COLMAR-1

Summary:

The regional newspaper Le Nouveau Rhin Français, in their Colmar issue for October 17, 1954, reported that on October 16, 1954, at 07:30 p.m. precisely, an object of a brilliant blue-green light moved above Colmar.

It seemed to travel at high altitude and high speed, to go down, and went from West to East, and was "not an ordinary shooting star because its brightness varied from green to blue."

Data:

Temporal data:

Date: October 16, 1954
Time: 07:30 p.m.
Duration: ?
First known report date: October 17, 1954
Reporting delay: Hours.

Geographical data:

Department: Haut-Rhin
City: Colmar
Place: ?
Latitude: 48.079
Longitude: 7.355
Uncertainty radius: 5 km

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses: ?
Number of known witnesses: ?
Number of named witnesses: 0
Witness(es) ages: ?
Witness(es) types: ?

Ufology data:

Reporting channel: Regional Press.
Type of location: From or near city, UFO in the sky.
Visibility conditions: Night
UFO observed: Yes
UFO arrival observed: ?
UFO departure observed: ?
Entities: No
Photographs: No.
Sketch(s) by witness(es): No.
Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): No.
Witness(es) feelings: ?
Witnesses interpretation: Not an ordinary shooting star.

Classifications:

Hynek: NL
ALSACAT: Probably the meteor of October 16, 1954 at 07:30 p.m.

Sources:

[Ref. nrf1:] NEWSPAPER "LE NOUVEAU RHIN FRANCAIS":

Was it a flying saucer... naturally...?

Last night, at 07:30 p.m. precisely, an object of a brilliant blue-green light moved at high altitude over our city. Its race seemed to go down and went from West to East. Whatever it was, it was not an ordinary shooting star because its brightness varied from green to blue. The projectile was traveling at high altitude and high speed.

A little later, around 09:25 p.m., we were informed from Wintzenheim that a kind of luminous ball was spotted at a height of about 2000 meters, it revolved on its axis and moved at a particularly high rate of speed from East to West in the direction of Hohlandsburg. Four people who were together observed this ball.

[Ref. cvn1:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:

In 2004, Christian Valentin wrote a dossier published in the magazine "Les Saisons d'Alsace", which was devoted to the French flap of 1954 as it was lived in Alsace.

Among briefly mentioned cases for this date, he indicates that on October 16, 1954, after 07:30 P.M. and before 09:20 P.M., a "celestial body" was seen from the area of Colmar. The phenomenon was of green and blue color and was coming from the west and going to the east, while apparently losing altitude.

[Ref. cvn2:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:

Former journalist Christian Valentin published in 2012 a very interesting book telling the story of UFO sightings, flying saucers sightings, in Alsace, from the beginning to 1980.

In this book, he reports that LE NOUVEAU RHIN FRANCAIS for Sunday, October 17, 1954, in the comar bilingual issue, published this article:

Was it a flying saucer... naturally...?

Last night, at 07:30 p.m. precisely, an object of a brilliant blue-green light moved at high altitude over our city. Its race seemed to go down and went from West to East. Whatever it was, it was not an ordinary shooting star because its brightness varied from green to blue. The projectile was traveling at high altitude and high speed.

A little later, around 09:25 p.m., we were informed from Wintzenheim that a kind of luminous ball was spotted at a height of about 2000 meters, it revolved on its axis and moved at a particularly high rate of speed from East to West in the direction of Hohlandsburg. Four people who were together observed this ball.

Discussion:

Map.

The description and details are very meager, we only know that it was fast, high, going down, luminous, blue-green, going from East to West, and that it looked like a shooting star but not n "ordinary" one. All things that reinforce my idea that it was again an observation of the 07:30 p.m. meteor of that day.

Evaluation:

Probably the meteor of October 16, 1954 at 07:30 p.m.

Sources references:

* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.

File history:

Authoring:

Main author: Patrick Gross
Contributors: None
Reviewers: None
Editeur: Patrick Gross

Changes history:

Version: Create/changed by: Date: Description:
0.1 Patrick Gross March 19, 2005 First published in the France 1954 catalogue.
1.0 Patrick Gross December 27, 2009 Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version.
3.0 Patrick Gross April 30, 2014 Additions [nrf1], [cvn2].
3.0 Patrick Gross April 30, 2014 First published in the ALSACAT catalogue.

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This page was last updated on April 30, 2014.