An account in Maine-et-Loire, France

On October 31, 2017 at 12:55 AM, a witness took advantage of the clear sky to look at the sky and the stars, toward the East (the West being less visible due to the brightness of the moon and the city of Cholet). While scanning the horizon approximately in the direction of Maulévrier, he spotted a fairly strong white light (East/South/East) with blue and red flashing. Five minutes later, he realized that the object had not moved or had barely moved. He then used the SkyView Free app on his smartphone: the bright point was not listed. Continuing to observe this bright point, he realized that it had moved vertically. He noticed that the bright point sometimes made jerky and rapid movements in a straight line over short distances. He tried to take photos and videos with his smartphone, but since the brightness was low, the point was hard to see (in the photos). Twenty-five minutes later, the bright point was still there, and it had clearly risen compared to its initial position. The blue and red flashing accompanying the white light did not stop throughout the entire observation. The white light was clearly stronger than that of the stars. Only one testimony was collected. A location map provided by the witness tells us the observation direction at an azimuth close to 120°, and a reconstruction on Stellarium of the sky map shows the presence of Sirius to the East Southeast at azimuth 120° (height 4°) at 12:55 AM (start time of observation) and azimuth 123° (height 6°) at 1:10 AM (time the photo was taken). The absence of Sirius during the sky observation via the app can be explained by poor calibration or a slight offset between the image on the smartphone and the sky. A comparison between the witness's photo and the sky map (see investigation notes) clearly reveals an identical position of the UAP and Sirius relative to the other stars. Sirius is the brightest star after the shepherd's star (Venus) and is never very high in the sky at our latitudes; its color changes are caused by atmospheric turbulence. The "jerky movement over short distances" is a known perception phenomenon called autokinesis, which occurs when observing a bright point in the dark. The slow vertical movement observed over 30 minutes is indeed that of Sirius in the sky (caused by the Earth's rotation). Consequently, GEIPAN classifies this case as A: certain observation of Sirius.