Sighting in Foussais-Payré, December 2, 2024

On leaving their home, one witness noticed a motionless bright object in the sky and first took it for a star. Their partner, the main witness, joined them shortly afterwards and watched the phenomenon independently. The main witness then went back indoors to fetch a smartphone and took several photos and videos, while the first witness stopped watching. The main witness described a blue, oval-shaped light making rapid, varied, non-straight movements. It stayed visible for at least eight minutes, then suddenly rose and vanished at very high speed into the sky. Only the main witness completed a GEIPAN questionnaire. GEIPAN rated the consistency of the testimony as very good: there were two witnesses, and photos and videos that could be used in the investigation.

The investigation concluded that the witnesses had observed the planet Venus. In the sharp, unzoomed parts of the videos, there is only a single white, motionless point of light, located where Venus was in the sky at that moment. No other light source is visible nearby, although one would have been expected had the phenomenon been something else. The movements, the oval shape and the bluish tint appear only in the zoomed portions. The handheld smartphone produced camera shake, which explains the erratic movements and the oval distortion. Night mode gave the bluish look. The "shooting upward" disappearance is, on the video, actually the scrolling of fixed objects on the ground. The case was classified A.