Sighting in Dry, January 29, 1981

At about 7:15 pm, a witness noticed a very bright point of light in the sky that they could not explain. It changed colour and made small movements. At 7:20 pm the witness phoned the gendarmerie, and two gendarmes came to their home straight away. The three of them watched the phenomenon together until 9:00 pm, when it was still visible. The gendarmes took photographs, but the pictures came out negative. Later, a night patrol from another brigade reported that the phenomenon was still visible at midnight and at 4:00 am. The accounts of the witness and the gendarmes were fully consistent, and the descriptions of the site and of the phenomenon were precise, except for its height in the sky, which other details indicated was low.

The investigation compared the phenomenon with Sirius: duration, shape, size and colour all matched, and the star lay exactly in the direction of the main observation between 7:00 and 9:00 pm. Its altitude stayed low (20° at 9:00 pm), which explains twinkling in a range of colours consistent with the witnesses' statements. The small movements could come from the twinkling or from the autokinetic effect. The main witness rejected the idea of a star because of the colour changes and erratic motion, but these effects are typical of Sirius. At midnight and 4:00 am, Sirius was no longer in the south-east direction reported; the second team most probably saw Jupiter in conjunction with Saturn, whose double glow could have been taken for the reported phenomenon. GEIPAN concluded it was a misidentification of Sirius and classed the case A.