An account in France, France

On December 23, 2008, several witnesses located in different departments of France observed the brief passage of a luminous phenomenon in the night sky. Four testimonies were collected. The 4 testimonies from that day (Labarthe-Inard (31), Aureil (87), Roquelaure (32), Le Vigean (86)) point toward the observation of a bolide (visual aspect, brevity of 1 to a few seconds). The available information on azimuth and elevation (of varying precision depending on the testimony) makes it possible to define an overlap zone located a priori in northern Spain (see the powerpoint document showing the 4 testimonies and the bolide summary document). The only inconsistent aspect is the information concerning the heading (that is, the direction of travel). The witness at Le Vigean indicates North-South while the other 3 indicate East-West. But it is fairly common in cases of confirmed bolide observation to have mismatches in heading due to the brevity of the observation (still compatible with a good recording of position in the sky but less so of its heading). One can also note that 3 observers place the observation near 10 PM while one of them (Aureil (87)) mentions 9 PM. It is difficult 7 years later to resolve this discrepancy by a new call to the witness. GEIPAN classifies this case as B: probable observation of a bolide.