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 Mundolsheim, on October 23, 1954:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1954-10-23-MUNDOLSHEIM-1

Summary:

The Alsatian journalist Christian Valentin, who is interested in UFOs, in his file on 1954 saucer flap in Alsace published in the magazine "Saisons d'Alsace" in the Summer of 2004, that on October 23, 1954, at one o'clock in the morning, little before the crossing towards Mundolsheim of the road from Strasbourg to Haguenau, "an object releasing an unreal light was seen, motionless at a few meters above the fields."

In his 2012 book, he adds that the source is the newspaper Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace for Tuesday, October 26, 1954.

Data:

Temporal data:

Date:	October 23, 1954
Time:	01:00 a.m.
Duration:	?
First known report date:	2004?
Reporting delay:	Day, 6 decades?

Geographical data:

Department:	Bas-Rhin
City:	Mundolsheim
Place:	A few meters above the fields, seen from little before the crossing towards Mundolsheim of the road from Strasbourg to Haguenau.
Latitude:	48.632
Longitude:	7.722
Uncertainty radius:	5 km

Witnesses data:

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

Ufology data:

Reporting channel:	?
Type of location:	?
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:	?

Classifications:

Hynek:	NL
ALSACAT:	Insufficient information. Astronomical, Jupiter?

Sources:

[Ref. cvn1:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:

Journalist Christian Valentin indicates that on October 23, 1954, at one o'clock in the morning, little before the crossing towards Mundolsheim of the road from Strasbourg to Haguenau, an object releasing an unreal light was seen, motionless at a few meters above the fields.

[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 the newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace for Tuesday, October 26, 1954, in the Sélestat bilingual issue, reported a case of Saturday, October 23, 1954, at 1 o'clock in Mundolsheim; he gives his translation of the related paragraph:

In addition, a freelancer from our newspaper living in Mundolsheim who was returning to his home on Saturday at 1 a.m. via the Strasbourg-Haguenau national road, observed shortly before the junction towards Mundolsheim on the right of the road, a motionless luminous object a few meters to the above the fields, giving off an unreal light.

Discussion:

My astronomy software indicates that for this sighting - if one considers the date and time are correct - the Moon was not visible.

Jupiter is the most prominent celestial body, in the East. Its angular elevation was 20 degrees, it is thus a bit unlikely that it was described as "a few meters above the fields" and "releasing an unreal light", but it is not impossible either.

The bottom line here is that the information is insufficient to proclaim one or the other explanation is true.

Above: the road from Strasbourg to Haguenau shortly before a crossing to Mundolsheim gives several possibilities, the roads are not necessarily the same in 2014 as they were in 1954.

Evaluation:

Insufficient information. Astronomical, Jupiter?

Sources references:

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

[dna1] ? Article in the regional newspaper Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, German-speaking issue of Sélestat, October 26, 1954.
[cvn1] * "1954, l'Année des OVNIS - en Alsace et dans le Monde", dossier by Christian Valentin, in the quarterly magazine Saisons d'Alsace, Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace publishers, France, #23, page 93, summer 2004.
[cvn2] * "Mythes et Réalités des Phénomènes Aériens Non Identifiés - Histoire des soucoupes volantes en Alsace jusqu'en 1980", book by Christian Valentin, Grimoires d'Alsace publishers, France, page 52, 2012.

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	December 8, 2005	First published in the France 1954 catalogue.
1.0	Patrick Gross	January 24, 2010	Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version.
1.0	Patrick Gross	February 15, 2014	A web search revealed no other information.
3.0	Patrick Gross	February 5, 2015	Addition [cvn2].
3.0	Patrick Gross	February 5, 2015	First published in the ALSACAT catalogue.

This page was last updated on February 5, 2015.