Ariège, France · 2011-06-28 · from the GEIPAN archive
Photographed in Ariège, France
A witness sends us a series of photographs on which she discovers "bizarre elements." No observation was made at the time the photos were taken. Determined to understand the phenomenon, the witness takes a photograph under the same conditions the next day. The same phenomenon appears again. This case illustrates very well a category of technical explanations for photos that are at first glance very strange: they are reflections in the camera's optics, appearing in the form of "caustics" (a family of surfaces in optics). The shooting conditions of the 5 photos taken in Ariège are perfect for the appearance of such optical effects in certain cameras (because this depends on the configuration of the optical blocks): a dark landscape with a few bright light sources, giving strong contrast, further reinforced by a long exposure time (between 23 and 35 seconds). The quality of the photos provided allows GEIPAN to open this case in order to concretely illustrate a case of misidentification linked to an optical phenomenon essentially due to the use of a digital camera under particular conditions (see the photographic analysis). The case is classified as A.
A witness sends us a photograph in which he notices, at the front of the photographed airplane, an object that intrigues him.
This witness did not make a direct observation at the time the p…
A person takes photographs of a rainbow and notices, the next day, on one photograph, three spherical gray spots that they cannot explain. Without direct observation at the time the photo wa…
On August 3, 2016 at 11:06 PM, a witness and his partner observe the slow and silent movement of two luminous objects (sunflower yellow) that follow each other. One of the witnesses takes a …
Following a press article, GEIPAN decided to investigate an observation made on June 23, 2008, at 4:52 a.m. by a witness who took photographs of a luminous phenomenon in the sky. According t…
Around 7 p.m. in the evening of June 3 or 4, 2009 (the witness does not remember the exact date), a photography enthusiast takes a photo of the sky in which one can see the Moon and the whit…
On March 17, 2010, at around 8:40 p.m., a motorist observed an orange luminous phenomenon that intrigued him just above the horizon. He stopped and took photographs facing west just before t…
On January 21, 2007, a witness taking a walk in the early afternoon took several photographs. When the photos were developed, the witness noticed black dots appearing repeatedly in the cente…
the accounts read alike, found by meaning rather than by shared details
On October 8, 2015 at 5 a.m., a witness is intrigued by the presence in the sky of a strong light in a clear sky. He decides to take photographs and notices the presence of another object. O…
the accounts read alike, found by meaning rather than by shared details
On April 20 or 27, 2008 at 8:44 PM, a motorist took a photograph from their vehicle of a luminous phenomenon that intrigued them. The photograph reached GEIPAN via an indirect witness. The p…
the accounts read alike, found by meaning rather than by shared details
Keep reading
There are thousands more like this in the record. Open one at random, or read the ones the most people recognise.
Or if something like this happened to you, write it down and we will look for the others who saw it too.
Know someone this happened to?
If this reminds you of something a friend or a relative told you once and never mentioned again, send them this page. Reading that a stranger described the same thing is usually the part that helps.
Nothing is tracked back to you and nothing is sent on your behalf. The link is just the page you are reading.
This is an official case file of GEIPAN, the French space agency's unidentified aerospace phenomena office, machine translated from French. The original text and the full investigation file are at geipan.fr. We reproduce it with thanks and remove anything on request.
Anomaly