Intermittent orange ball over Vaucouleurs

Summary

On January 16, 1977, a driver and passenger observed an orange luminous ball over Vaucouleurs. They estimated its apparent diameter at about 15 cm and its altitude at around 2,000 meters. The object left no trail and made no sound. It faded out three times, relighting quickly each time, before vanishing abruptly. The observation was clear and detailed but could not be matched to any conventional explanation. GEIPAN classified the case as category C.