SENTENAC-D'OUST (09) 30.07.2016

On 30 July 2016 at 04:15, a witness closing shutters in Sentenac-d’Oust saw a large, very bright orange point about 20–25° above the horizon in a cloudy sky. He first thought of a forest fire, then an atmospheric re-entry. Over 2–3 minutes it gradually disappeared, stretching lengthwise into an inverted L shape. Only 1 account was obtained. GEIPAN identifies the Moon. It explains that when a low Moon is partly visible through clouds, the visible luminous shape can follow the gap between the clouds, in this case an inverted L. Reconstruction using the witness’s drawing on a photograph and a sky chart left GEIPAN in no doubt. The case is classified A: the Moon mistaken for an unidentified phenomenon.