Sighting in Nègrepelisse, January 13, 1979

Starting at around 8 p.m., several witnesses noticed a bright object in the sky that showed different colors and gave off flashes of reflected light. It was to the right of the Moon, though the report gives no information on the distance between the two. The sighting lasted about thirty minutes, and binoculars were used.

The witnesses then left for three hours. When they came back, around midnight, they saw the same luminous phenomenon again, farther away and shifted toward the south.

The investigation concluded that this was probably an astronomical observation. The most likely candidates are Procyon (magnitude 0.40), which is particularly easy to see at that time of year, or Sirius, whose changing colors are well known and would have been emphasized by the use of binoculars. Jupiter was also very visible, but it lay to the left of the Moon, which does not match the testimony. The southward shift noted when the witnesses returned fits the natural motion of the stars. GEIPAN therefore classified the case as B, probably identified.