Sighting in Lamarque-Pontacq, February 13, 2011

At 6:07 on a Sunday morning, a driver on the D940 heading toward Lourdes noticed an orange ball right at the horizon. It seemed to move slowly, and its brightness was uneven. After getting home, the witness kept watching it using the zoom on their camera. In all, the observation lasted about half an hour. Only one witness account was collected.

The investigation calculated the viewing directions from the profile of the road the witness had taken. They were always roughly the same, around 130° azimuth. An astronomical check showed that the planet Venus was in that direction, extremely bright. This kind of mix-up is common: because the planet is low on the horizon, witnesses perceive it as close by and flying over the landscape. The color changes and details described came from atmospheric scintillation, which is very strong and variable near the horizon, as it is at sunset. GEIPAN classified the case as A: observation of the planet Venus.