An account in Hautes-Alpes, France

On January 24, 2012 at around 7:45 p.m., a motorist is driving on a country road when he sees a cylindrical object, white, very intense, and stationary at low altitude. The witness stops his vehicle and makes signs. No noise is heard. The motorist resumes his route and then notices that the object seems to follow him. Back in his village, he goes into his garden and notices that the lights have become orange-red. He then tells his wife about his observation and calls the gendarmes. The gendarmerie on site that same evening will see no light, and in the neighborhood inquiry no other testimony is collected. The observation of a low luminous point on the horizon that seems to follow the witness and stops when he stops suggests that of a celestial body, whose direction of observation remains constant (in azimuth). In the direction indicated by the witness at the beginning of the observation (around 250°, to the southwest) (see on the map, the 2 arrows on the right) is indeed the planet Venus, very bright (magnitude -3.5) at low elevation (10°) (see Stellarium map). In the second part of the observation (see the map, left arrow), the witness observes toward the southeast: it is another bright celestial body that is clearly visible: the star Sirius, the brightest in the sky (Mag -1.45) but less bright than Venus, it logically appears more distant to the witness. Given the uncertainty about the observation directions, GEIPAN classifies this case as "B": probable observation of the planet Venus and the star Sirius.