Sighting in Saintes, March 21, 2016

At around 11 p.m., the witness noticed a very bright, round, white object hanging motionless in the sky to the south, to the left of the Moon. They heard no particular noise. They watched it with the naked eye and then through binoculars for about an hour. By 4 a.m. the object had disappeared completely. No other witness account was collected.

The investigation concluded that the witness had been surprised by Jupiter, a common mistake: the planet is much brighter than a star and does not twinkle. The witness described it as being as bright as the Moon and enormous, although in their own drawing it was clearly much smaller than the Moon. GEIPAN considered there was no doubt. The witness described the object's path over five hours relative to the Moon, and this description, along with the drawing, matches the sky that night perfectly. The reconstruction shows Jupiter to the left of the Moon. The star the witness placed to the right of the Moon is either Alphard (magnitude 1.95, lower right, as in the drawing) or Regulus (magnitude 1.35, upper right). GEIPAN therefore classified the case as A: a misidentification of Jupiter.