Orange light over Comines identified as the Moon in 1984

Summary

In September 1984, five witnesses in Comines saw a slow-moving orange light in the sky, roughly the size and shape of a rugby ball, which split into two ovals during the observation. Initially classified as unexplained, GEIPAN re-examined the case with modern tools and concluded it was the setting Moon. The confusion stemmed not from faulty perception but from an interpretation shaped by the nighttime context, surprise, and fatigue. The case was reclassified as PAN A — a misidentification of a known astronomical object.