Sighting in Puymoyen, August 27, 2017

At about 10:30 p.m., two witnesses were out in the countryside looking at the starry sky. They were intrigued by luminous phenomena in a small part of the sky that seemed to move in jerks. One of them had started staring at a single star, and the other said that person was "stuck" on it. To judge the movement, they used reference points in the sky, the clouds, or a finger held still. One of the lights seemed to be accompanied by two fainter ones forming a triangle. The observation lasted 40 minutes, during which the phenomenon went from a high position in the northwest to a position still in the northwest but about 15° lower. Two witness accounts were collected.

The GEIPAN investigation found the sighting showed little that was strange. Staring hard at a star often makes it seem to move, a known effect called autokinesis, which may differ from one star to another depending on brightness. Using clouds as a reference is unreliable, especially as the wind was shifting: the Angoulême weather station recorded a 90° change between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. Three stars forming a triangle is nothing unusual when conditions let fainter stars be seen. The observed drift matches the motion of the stars, which rules out satellites. The second witness confirming the first one's impressions does not prove the movement, since this perception is easily influenced by other people. GEIPAN also raised the possible influence of an earlier, much stranger account from the same place that also involved a triangle. The strange elements were, moreover, vague, with no drawing or measured values. The case was classed A: observation of stars.