Sighting in Chaudefonds-sur-Layon, September 12, 2014

The witness was driving when a source of light caught their eye. It looked like a second sun. They stopped the car, got out and photographed the phenomenon. In fact, the witness noted two separate things. With the naked eye, they saw a "false" sun whose outline showed iridescent colours. On the photos taken with their smartphone, they later noticed luminous "cylinders" on the side opposite the sun.

The GEIPAN investigation concluded that what the witness saw directly was a parhelion, a luminous phenomenon seen 22° from the sun. The bright shapes in the pictures are lens flares, reflections produced inside the lens. It can be checked that these spots lie symmetrically to the sun relative to the centre of the image, so their position in the sky changes depending on how the sun is framed. The case was classified A: a parhelion seen live, and flares on the photographs, identified afterwards.