Sighting in Gradignan, June 20, 2020

A witness was waiting for a friend in the passenger seat of a parked car when a movement at the edge of their right-hand field of view caught their attention. A luminous phenomenon first travelled a short distance, about 5 cm in apparent terms, from left to right, then became stationary and disappeared. The witness took a photo through the windscreen. Four months later, they zoomed in on it and processed it with a colour inversion, which revealed a shape that intrigued them. They then contacted the GEIPAN. Only one account was collected.

The witness placed the sighting on 21 June 2020 at 00:02, based on the photo's data. However, the sky in the photo is still bright. An IPACO analysis dated the picture to 20 June 2020 at 22:02, which fits the sky's appearance better, the sun being at 16°35 at that time. In the account, it is hard to separate what was seen with the naked eye from what was noticed afterwards on the photo. The witness mentioned a point in their free account, but a bilboquet-shaped object (cup-and-ball shape) in the questionnaire.

As the witness was looking north, a left-to-right movement corresponds to a west-to-east one. Nearby weather stations recorded light wind of 2 to 7 km/h, and the Canejean station a wind of 332°. The wind's direction, heading and strength are consistent with an object carried by the wind, and its weakness may explain the impression that the movement stopped. The northeast/southwest swaying described afterwards may come from the wind or, for a lantern, from the flame. The brightness suggests an object reflecting sunlight. The doubled look on the photo is probably a windscreen effect. The GEIPAN classified the case as B: a probable misidentification of an object carried by the wind, such as a festive balloon or a lantern, on a summer Saturday evening.