CAMBES (33) 04.03.2015

On 4 March 2015 at about 20:15, a witness saw an off-white disk as large and bright as the Moon above the trees, with 2 thin luminous lines around it. It moved slowly, became elongated, was followed by 2 red lights and 1 white light, and disappeared from the worried witness's view. Only 1 account was collected. In a follow-up call, the witness clarified that the viewing direction was northeast, with the actual Moon visible to the right, and again described the 2 fine lines around the disk. The description fits the atmospheric optical phenomenon called a paraselene or moon dog, located 22° and/or 46° from the Moon at a similar elevation. The source explains it as an image of the Moon produced by reflection from ice crystals in high, cold cirrus clouds and refers to the Wikipedia paraselene article. Weather records are available on Météociel. GEIPAN classifies the case A: lunar halo. The source does not separately explain the later red and white lights.