Sighting in Sarthe, October 2, 1977

Between 9:50 and 10:00 p.m., motorists in two different parts of the département noticed a light in the sky that they could not explain. The object was round, slightly flattened on top, and orange in color. The two groups of witnesses, who were independent of each other, each gave a statement to the gendarmerie, and their accounts were consistent.

The case was first classed C by SEPRA because there was not enough information. In 2013, an internet user took a fresh look at it and sent GEIPAN an explanation, which was validated. It is a typical "following ball" case: while people are on the move, a luminous point or disc seems to travel along with them. In reality the object is very distant and always stays in the same geographic direction, and it is usually a celestial body. What the witnesses described was not very strange, since it closely resembled the Moon. GEIPAN therefore classed the case A: an observation of the Moon.