Sighting in Handschuheim, June 7, 2014

During the night, between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., a person noticed lights in the sky that surprised and intrigued them. The sighting unfolded in three stages. Shortly after 2:30 a.m., three luminous objects moved from south to north. Next, two blinking objects crossed the sky, one from south to north-west and the other from north to south. Finally, after 3:15 a.m., the witness saw what they described as a "gigantic" light in the west, which disappeared toward the south.

GEIPAN checked the Calsky software. For the first pass, several satellites and rocket stages were candidates at that time. For the blinking objects, several satellites could have followed those paths, and the blinking may come from some satellites spinning and reflecting sunlight irregularly; aircraft are also possible, since their anti-collision lights flash once per second. For the last light, the International Space Station was visible that day from 3:16 a.m., rising in the west-north-west, until 3:22 a.m., when it disappeared toward the south-east. The word "gigantic" is surprising for a light merely as bright as Venus, but the fact that it was the middle of the night may explain it.

GEIPAN classified the case as B: probable sighting of satellites and the International Space Station. The middle of the night favors over-interpretation of celestial phenomena, especially in emotional people, which appears to be the case here.