Sighting in Valdoie, December 24, 2015

At about 7:40 pm, a witness was in their garden when they noticed a very bright orange glow moving silently across a clear sky. They first said it travelled from east to west, but their detailed description gave a west-to-east path. The glow was to the right of and below the Moon. It looked about a quarter to a third the size of the full Moon, then shrank to a point of light and went out. No other witness account was gathered.

To settle the direction, the investigation relied on the Moon's position. It was one day before full and had been up for about three hours, so it lay in the east, to the left of the witness, who was facing south. A phenomenon to the right of the Moon was therefore in the west, which confirms a west-to-east path. The Belfort-Dorans weather station, less than 10 km away, reported a clear sky, 20 km visibility and a west wind gusting at 10 to 20 km/h. A floating object would have been pushed in that direction.

The orange glow, the wind-driven movement, the silence and the disappearance by going out all match a lantern, and it was Christmas Eve, a night when such things are common. GEIPAN classified the case as B: probable sighting of a Thai lantern.