Sighting in Cannes, June 2, 2023

Two evenings in a row, at around 10 p.m., a couple noticed a very bright object hanging motionless in the sky. On the second evening, another couple, who were friends, were there too and confirmed the sighting. Only one witness, however, filled in a questionnaire for GEIPAN. The observations were made from several spots within the town and each lasted about two hours. The witness placed the object to the south, but the photographs point instead to a direction between west and west-northwest. Through binoculars, the object looked made up of several bright points of equal size, constantly moving, which gave it a changing appearance, sometimes spherical and sometimes crescent-shaped.

On the second evening, three photos were taken with a mobile phone. They show a single white point of light, without the shapes or separate points seen with the naked eye and through the binoculars. On 1 July 2023, the witness reported the same phenomenon again and filmed it. The video once more shows a white point of light, with no landmarks to locate it precisely in the sky.

GEIPAN rated the case as having very low strangeness and good consistency (four witnesses, but a single testimony, with photos and video). It was the planet Venus: its appearance and the direction as corrected by the investigation both match, and it was seen at the same times on consecutive evenings. The photos show only one point of light, whereas two close points would have appeared if Venus had not been the source. The object stayed visible until Venus set. On 1 July it was lower in the sky, which fits the planet's expected position on that date. The shape changes seen through binoculars are explained by poor focusing of the instrument: focusing on an isolated point of light with no distance reference is very difficult, and the image can overlap with one produced by the eye itself (entoptic vision), creating an illusion of movement. The case is classified A.