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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 Strasbourg, on August 26, 1959:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1959-08-26-STRASBOURG-1

Summary:

The regional newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, in their Strasbourg issue for August 28, 1959, wrote about a "mysterious craft seen in the sky" by readers domiciled "either Strasbourg or Brumath", who reported this "apparition" of Wednesday, August 26, 1959, between 8:30 p.m. and 8:15 p.m.

In Strasbourg, people had observed for five minutes "a ball the size of a star and of a fairly high brightness" which flew in a semicircle.

Coming from the East, the ball headed south, then north-west.

The newspaper wondered if it was "one of those artificial satellites that currently orbit in space?"

Data:

Temporal data:

Date: August 26, 1959
Time: Between 08:30 p.m. and 08:15 p.m.
Duration: 5 minutes.
First known report date: August 28, 1959
Reporting delay: Hour, 2 days.

Geographical data:

Department: Bas-Rhin
City: Strasbourg, Brumath
Place: From Strasbourg and Brumath, UFO in the sky.
Latitude: 48.649
Longitude: 7.728
Uncertainty radius: 17 km

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses: 3 or more.
Number of known witnesses: ?
Number of named witnesses: 0
Witness(es) ages: Adults.
Witness(es) types: Readers of the newspaper.

Ufology data:

Reporting channel: The regional Press.
Type of location: From a city and a village, UFO in the sky.
Visibility conditions: Night.
UFO observed: Yes
UFO arrival observed: Yes
UFO departure observed: Yes
Entities: No
Photographs: No.
Sketch(s) by witness(es): No.
Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): No.
Witness(es) feelings: Puzzled.
Witnesses interpretation: ?

Classifications:

Hynek: NL
ALSACAT: Possible plane.

Sources:

[Ref. dna1:] NEWSPAPER "DERNIERES NOUVELLES D'ALSACE":

Mysterious machine seen in the sky

Several readers (domiciled either in Strasbourg or Brumath) reported the appearance of a mysterious craft in the sky Wednesday night between 8:15 p.m. and 08:30 p.m.

In Strasbourg, many people observed for 5 minutes a ball the size of a star and of pretty intense luminosity follow a semicircle.

From the East, the ball went to the South and to the North West. Is it one of those artificial satellites currently orbiting in space?

[Ref. jve1:] JACQUES VALLEE:

Jacques Vallée indicates in a bibliography:

"Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace August 28, 1959. Mysterious craft seen in the sky."

[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:

26 August 1959 20:15

Strasbourg, Alsace, France

Nocturnal lights were reported for over 15 minutes (Floerks).

Hynek rating: NL

Vallee rating: FB1

The sources are indicated as: "Vallee, Jacques, Computerized Catalog (N = 3073); UFO Nachrichten (Veit), UFO Nachrichten (Germany)."

[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 a case in Strasbourg and Brumath was reported in the newspaper Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace for Friday, 28 August 1959, in the Strasbourg issue:

Mysterious machine seen in the sky

Several readers (domiciled either in Strasbourg or Brumath) reported the appearance of a mysterious craft in the sky Wednesday night between 8:15 p.m. and 08:30 p.m.

In Strasbourg, many people observed for 5 minutes a ball the size of a star and of pretty intense luminosity follow a semicircle.

From the East, the ball went to the South and to the North West. Is it one of those artificial satellites currently orbiting in space?

Christan Valentin comments that the 50s therefore finished on such mundane and inconclusive events.

[Ref. ubk1:] "UFODATENBANK":

Case ID19590826
Global case number:19590826-0002-UDB
Date of observation (Day)26
Date of observation (Month)8
Date of observation(Year)1959
Hour of observation20.15
Zip Code
Place of observationStrasbourg
County
Federal state
CountryFrance
Witnesses
Hynek Classification
Vallee Classification
Ruthledge Classification
Henke Classification
Evaluation
Identification
Investigations
Status of the investigation
DomainUFO-Datenbank
Case added by
Latest change by:
Investigator in charge of the case
SourceDUFOA-Deutschland - SiDat - 1996-2002
State of the information25.04.2015 22:16
Accesses to this record2
Link to Openmaphttp://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=Strasbourg,France
Link to the observationhttp://www.ufo-db.com/WfrmSetupSichtung.aspx?uid_Sichtung=3e0fed55-89c1-4718-8a09-30a34c975301
Summary for guestsThe facts and other possible documents will be published progressively. We thank you for your patience.
Preview image

Discussion:

Map.

Brumath is a village of the Lower Rhine, 17 kilometers from Strasbourg, located approximately at the north of Strasbourg.

The data is very meager. Apparently the thing made a turn change, so that the satellite suggested by the newspaper could be ruled out, and a plane makes a more plausible explanation.

Evaluation:

Possible plane.

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 November 27, 2014 Creation, [dna1], [jve1], [uda1], [cvn2].
1.0 Patrick Gross November 27, 2014 First published.
1.1 Patrick Gross January 25, 2018 Addition [ubk1].

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This page was last updated on January 25, 2018.