Sighting in Nîmes, January 5, 1984

At about 2:30 in the morning, two witnesses were travelling by vehicle on the A9 motorway toward Montpellier. A first phenomenon followed them along the motorway for roughly twenty kilometres. A second luminous phenomenon, showing various colours, was seen by only one of the two witnesses, who was very frightened. No particular noise was heard during the sightings.

In its investigation, the GEIPAN treated the two phenomena separately. The first, seen by both witnesses, was classified C: the accounts and drawings differ almost entirely on its appearance and behaviour, and their weakness allowed no further checking or cross-referencing. The case could therefore no longer remain in its original category D.

The second phenomenon, the subject of this record, was classified A. It was a misidentification of the star Aldebaran, seen in a temporarily favourable geographical configuration. Part of the strangeness the witness felt came from the "following ball" illusion caused by their own movement: a distant object seems to accompany the vehicle and shift relative to the road, when in fact it is the road that changes direction against the fixed bearing of the star.