Sighting in Lyon, April 4, 2018

One evening at around 9 p.m., a witness noticed a very bright, motionless point of light in the night sky. They described it as a circular, intensely white object that flickered and seemed surrounded by long filaments. The witness watched it for 40 minutes and filmed it. The object eventually disappeared behind a cloud. Three members of the witness's family also saw it, but only this person's account was collected.

The GEIPAN investigation concluded that the witness had seen Venus, which the witness themselves mentioned. They simply found it brighter than usual and made out filaments around it. The witness placed the object toward the Montchat district, an azimuth of roughly 280° to 290°, at a height of 10° to 15°. At that time Venus was at about 280° azimuth and roughly 10° above the horizon. Had the object not been Venus, the witness would have noticed Venus close to it at some point during such a long observation, especially as the clouds in that direction were only passing, as the account and the photo show. Prolonged viewing of Venus also often gives an impression of jets of rays, here described as filaments. The case was therefore classified A: Venus.