Red morning ball over Neuilly-en-Thelle in 1980

Summary

On January 3, 1980, at 8:05 AM, a witness in Neuilly-en-Thelle spotted a red ball in the sky while closing their shutters. The object disappeared behind clouds and reappeared moments later, moving erratically at high speed from southeast to northwest. The witness took photographs; the gendarmes examined the negative, which showed a brown spot, but the negative has never been found in the archives. There were no other witnesses. The most likely explanation points to the full Moon setting at dawn, illuminated by the rising sun, which would have given it a reddish hue.