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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 September 26, 1975:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1975-09-26-COLMAR-1

Summary:

The regional newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace for September 28-29, 1975, wondered if a UFO, or a satellite, or "a meteorite", was in the heaven of Colmar on September 26, 1975.

The newspaper reported that several people had said that a very bright flying object was seen that night in the sky above Colmar towards the East.

Witnesses had observed it between 8 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. and according to their estimation, it was about 300 meters above the ground.

It extinguished once in a while, and eventually disappeared completely.

Data:

Temporal data:

Date: September 26, 1975
Time: Between 08:00 p.m. and 09:15 p.m.
Duration: 01:15?
First known report date: September 28, 1975
Reporting delay: 2 days.

Geographical data:

Department: Haut-Rhin
City: Colmar
Place: ?
Latitude: 48.080
Longitude: 7.357
Uncertainty radius: 3 km

Witnesses data:

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

Ufology data:

Reporting channel: The regional Press.
Type of location: ?
Visibility conditions: Nightfall.
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: Unidentified, insufficient information.

Sources:

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

A UFO in the sky of Colmar?

Several people alerted us that a very bright flying object was visible Friday evening in the sky above Colmar in the eastern direction. Witnesses managed to observe it between 8 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.. According to their estimate, it was at about 300 meters in height. Turning off from time to time, it finally disappeared completely. Was it a satellite or a meteorite? In any case an unidentified flying object to add to the long list alreay existing.

[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 this case of Friday, September 26, 1975, was reported in Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace for Sunday 28 and Monday 29 of September 1975:

A UFO in the sky of COLMAR?

Several people alerted us that a very bright flying object was visible Friday evening in the sky above Colmar in the eastern direction. Witnesses managed to observe it between 8 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.. According to their estimate, it was at about 300 meters in height. Turning off from time to time, it finally disappeared completely. Was it a satellite or a meteorite? In any case an unidentified flying object to add to the long list alreay existing.

Discussion:

Scan.

About Christian Valentin's book:

It is not at all my habit to "advertise" a book or anything, and I have no interested relationship with the author, but I wanted to say a word on the book by Christian Valentin, "Mythes et Réalités des Phénomènes Aériens Non Identifiés" (i.e. "Myths and Realities of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" (cover on the left) , ref. [cv2]; which, as its subtitle indicates, is about Alsatian UFO sighting reports and the saucer lore in Alsace.

I think Alsatian ufologists and generally people interested in the UFO question, or in the history of Alsace, my region, would probably like this book.

The 144 pages book is sober but well presented, unbiased, richly documented and illustrated. It is the first work in print specifically about UFO sightings in Alsace. (There was another one a few years ago, but it was partly made by copying - pasting without mention of the sources, portions of my website, especially the Alsatians cases I almost exhaustively documented in my catalog of UFO sightings in France in 1954, and copies from another websites; the trivial explanations I proposed or gave there being almost always stripped off!)

The author does not want to prove or disprove the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors or some other so-called "extraordinary" explanation, he rather offers a chronologically ordered review of Alsatian UFO reports, starting from the origin and stopping in 1980, based on known sources ufology, on the articles of the regional Press, and cases less known or even unreleased so far that he collected directly with the witnesses. His own comments are printed in a different color, references to the sources are always given. A very nice work in my opinion!

The author currently has a blog where he shows what libraries in Alsace have the book available, see: christian.valentin.overblog.com

Map.

The journalist author of the article of the "DN" does not seem to be very skilled in astronomy. A "meteorite" that stands in the sky "between 8 p.m. and 9:15 p.m." and goes on and off occasionally, this seems rather doubtful...

It would have been better to collect detailed information, such as the brightness, the angular size, the direction, the elevation, the nature of any move, etc.

However, let's check the presence of celestial bodies in the East from Colmar at that time.

At 08:05 p.m., Jupiter rises from the horizon. We have stars, but none shines in a particularly powerful way. Venus and Mars are not visible. So the only candidate is Jupiter, but at 08:00 p.m. it is still just below the horizon and if the observation is made from Colmar, obstacles to the view do not let it be seen from 8 p.m. already. And it does not disappear, it becomes increasingly obvious as it rises in the sky - except if clouds hid it of course.

Evaluation:

Unidentified, insufficient information.

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 September 19, 2015 Creation, [dna1], [cvn2].
1.0 Patrick Gross September 19, 2015 First published.

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This page was last updated on September 19, 2015.