AMBIERLE (42) 13.02.1980

On 13 February 1980 at about 05:40, a postal-service employee travelling to work saw a light in a clear sky above the Monts du Lyonnais. For 8 minutes he watched a yellow-orange half-Moon-shaped glow move slowly north to south and gradually fade. A companion also saw it but gave no statement to the gendarmerie. The sky chart shows the Moon with little of its disc illuminated, approaching new Moon on 16 February, very low in the reported direction. Although the witness said there was no Moon, GEIPAN considers that he probably saw its glow without recognizing it; its magnitude was −8.9.