Sighting in Lantéfontaine, October 20, 1991

Between 20 and 24 October 1991, between 6 and 8 in the morning, two witnesses were intrigued by a luminous phenomenon they saw several times in the sky. It was a very bright point of light. One of the witnesses filmed it with a camcorder each time it appeared. The gendarmes also noted a bright point in the sky, always in the same spot.

When the witness zoomed in to the maximum, a sphere with two "notches" appeared on the image. The investigation showed that this was a flaw related to the camcorder's lens.

An astronomical check established that the "shepherd's star", i.e. Venus, was indeed visible in that part of the sky on the dates in question. The planet was at its peak brightness, with a magnitude that could reach -4.46 during that period. The case had first been published under the name BRIEY and rated B (probable observation of an astronomical body). After a new analysis in 2009, GEIPAN reclassified it as A: the sightings were successive observations of the planet Venus, fully identified.