Hautes-Pyrénées, France · 2011-02-13 · from the GEIPAN archive
On Sunday, February 13, 2011 at 6:07 a.m., a motorist on the D940 between Lamarque-Pontacq (65) and Lourdes (65) is intrigued by the slow movements of an orange ball at the horizon line. The witness spots an irregular luminosity. Upon arriving home, he uses the zoom on his camera to continue his observation. It lasts about thirty minutes in total. Only one testimony was collected. Calculating the observation directions of the phenomenon shows that, according to the profile of the road taken by the witness (see cartographic diagrams 1 and 2), the observation direction of the phenomenon is always roughly the same, around 130° azimuth. An astronomical check shows that the planet Venus is visible in that direction, extremely bright. This confusion is common: since the planet is low on the horizon, witnesses perceive it as close, flying over the landscape. The color changes and details reported are the result of twinkling caused by the atmosphere; these effects are very strong and variable at the horizon line (same as at sunset). GEIPAN classifies this case "A": observation of the planet Venus.
What stood out: an orange orb
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This is an official case file of GEIPAN, the French space agency's unidentified aerospace phenomena office, machine translated from French. The original text and the full investigation file are at geipan.fr. We reproduce it with thanks and remove anything on request.
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