Sighting in Gardouch, March 21, 1979

At around 2 a.m., a motorist driving along the D16 between Ayguesvives and Gardouch noticed a luminous phenomenon whose shape and color kept changing throughout the drive. It seemed to follow them. Over the 10 kilometers they covered, it appeared at times to stop dead, then take off again with sharp accelerations.

Once home, the witness woke their spouse, who also saw the phenomenon. The witness took photographs, then went to bed at about 3 a.m. No particular sound was heard, and the gendarmerie gathered no other witness accounts.

The GEPAN investigation in 1979 concluded that the witness had probably seen the Moon rising in hazy weather. A check carried out in 2008 on the state of the sky at the time showed a conjunction of the Moon, Neptune and Antares, which confirmed the 1979 conclusion. The case is classified A: astronomical observation of the Moon.