Sighting in Montfort-sur-Meu, November 27, 1987

Over two evenings, several witnesses watched a bright red light low in the sky to the west for a long time. The first sighting took place around 8:20 p.m.; the second, around 11:30 p.m., involved four witnesses. Depending on the witness, the object looked like a ball or a banana. It seemed motionless or moved very slowly, and made no noise. Each sighting lasted up to about a quarter of an hour.

The gendarmerie took statements from several witnesses and found no suspicious traces on the ground in the area. No weather balloon had been launched from the Rennes Saint-Jacques weather station during the relevant time slot, and no helicopter flew at night on those days.

The GEIPAN reexamined this case, originally classified D, and explained it as a misidentification of the setting Moon. The Moon was setting in the direction of both observations, which were made near a pylon. Its movement toward the west and the ground matched the descriptions, as did its large apparent diameter, its brightness, its colors and its appearance close to First Quarter. All five witnesses stated it was not the Moon, but none said where the Moon was relative to the object, even though the sky was clear, at least on the 27th. On the first evening, thin cloud passing in front of the Moon accounts for the almost round shape, the disappearances and reappearances, and the back-and-forth movements, an optical illusion caused by variations in the intensity of the visible part. The GEIPAN finds it surprising that the witnesses on the 27th did not recognize the Moon in a cloudless sky, but the conclusion remains unavoidable. The case is classified A.