Sighting in Lourdes, September 22, 2013

A witness saw several silent luminous balls in the sky on the evenings between 22 and 28 September 2013. One of them, very bright and close to the horizon, stayed visible for a long time and appeared again over several days in a row. To the witness, it seemed to follow them. The witness provided a drawing showing the direction of the sighting, along with photos, and also mentioned a second ball, orange and less bright, a little higher up and to the right of the first.

On 23 September 2013, the witness also saw an orange ball cross the sky very quickly, for only a few seconds.

According to GEIPAN, the bright ball that seemed to follow the witness is a classic misidentification, sometimes called a "following ball". It was the planet Venus, very brilliant at that time of year in the early evening (magnitude -4.7). The direction on the drawing corresponds to an azimuth of about 241°, while Venus was at 235° at the same hour, and the photos fit this explanation. The fainter orange ball was Saturn. The fast passage on 23 September was very probably a bolide, meaning a meteoroid entering the atmosphere. The case was classified A.