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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 in the Bas-Rhin, on August 20, 2022:

Case number:

ALSACAT-2022-08-20-BASRHIN-1

Summary:

The website of the regional newspaper Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace reported on August 20, 2022, as soon as 10:54 p.m. that residents of the Bas-Rhin departments, in Strasbourg and Molsheim in particular, had contacted them to report having seen at 9:43 p.m., 9:45 p.m., a trail of lights in the sky, which the newspaper explains with reason and verification to have been a train of Starlink satellites.

The newspaper had received photos, including this one:

Scan.

Data:

Temporal data:

Date: August 20, 2022
Time: 09:43 p.m.
Duration: Minutes.
First known report date: August 20, 2022
Reporting delay: 1 hour.

Geographical data:

Department: Bas-Rhin
City: Strasbourg etc.
Place: ?
Latitude: 48.574
Longitude: 7.707
Uncertainty radius: 20 km.

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses: ?
Number of known witnesses: ?
Number of named witnesses: ?
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: 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: ?
ALSACAT: ?

Sources:

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

Scan.

According to the findstarlink website, which allows to know the situation of the satellites of the American firm of Elon Musk, a passage took place above Strasbourg this Saturday around 9:45 p.m., thus causing this "light train" in the sky whose was witnessed by several residents of the area.

A picture was published:

Scan.

With this caption:

Many of you sent us photos and videos of a luminous trail seen in the sky a few minutes ago.

These are quite simply Starlink satellites from the SpaceX company, founded by Elon Musk, which passed through the Bas-Rhin sky at 9:43 p.m.

Discussion:

This was also reported at the same time, among others, in the Montbéliard region, outside Alsace:

It lasted only a few minutes this Saturday, August 20, 2022 around 10 p.m., a trail of "shooting stars" in the sky of Montbéliard, well aligned, which follow each other, and accelerate to disappear. No, they weren't UFOs, or even shooting stars, but satellites from the company SpaceX for the Starlink project.

(Source: https://www.toutmontbeliard.com/2022/08/20/des-etoiles-filantes-de-satellites-dans-le-ciel-starlink-de-spacex-2)

Also in the Nord with the incorrect date of "Saturday August 21, 2022", in the Haut-Rhin, in the Haute-Marne, in Lons-le-Saunier in the Jura, in the Seine-et-Marne, in the Isère, the Nivernais, etc.

Generally, reports appeared in the local and regional news media, most often assuring that "some eople" had mistaken this for "UFOs"; but there are no significant records of testimonies actually supporting this claim. I had two friends who each had seen Starlink in the years 2022 - 2023, and talked to me about it, but none of them really called it "UFO", much less "alien craft", they simply indicated not having seen a similar sight before and not knowing what it was (therefore "UFOs" in the literal sense only).

It goes without saying that by digging into the web "forums", one will not fail to find stories or photos related to Starlink satellites interpreted as extraterrestrial craft, but this is not the general interpretation that the witnesses give.

Evaluation:

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
Editor: Patrick Gross

Changes history:

Version: Create/changed by: Date: Description:
0.1 Patrick Gross January 10, 2023 Creation, [dna1].
1.0 Patrick Gross January 10, 2023 First published.

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This page was last updated on January 10, 2023.