Sighting in Auvers, August 17, 1980

Around 10 p.m., two witnesses at a forest lodge noticed a very bright phenomenon to the west. Through binoculars they made out a large crescent giving off intense rays of light. Wanting a closer look, they got into a vehicle. The crescent stayed in view and seemed to move fast, as if following their vehicle. Frightened, they turned around and went back. The phenomenon then stopped moving and disappeared.

No traces were found on the ground or on the vegetation, and no other witness provided any information. The case, long classified D, was recently re-examined by GEIPAN. It rests on two witnesses whose sincerity and credibility have never been questioned, and the description of the location and of the phenomenon is fairly precise. The phenomenon described (duration, shape, size, color) matches the setting Moon in many respects, and the Moon was indeed in the part of the sky they were watching, although the witnesses do not mention it. GEIPAN concluded that the witnesses' eyesight was not at fault; rather, their interpretation of what they saw was shaped by tiredness, worry and fear. The case, of low strangeness, is classified A: a misidentification of the Moon.