Sighting in Meaux, December 19, 1978

At about 8:23 one morning in December, a witness standing on their balcony noticed a point of light swaying in the clear sky to the south-east. They could not identify it. The light stayed visible until about 9:45, when it vanished, hidden by the sun. Gendarmes who were in the apartment also saw a point of light in the same direction, at an elevation of roughly 35°.

The day before, in Paris, two witnesses had been intrigued by a particularly bright object in the sky, and a police team had also noticed it. The Paris police inquiry had concluded that it was an astronomical observation.

An astronomical check, using a sky chart, shows that at the time given Venus stood between 25° and 30° up, in the south-east. GEIPAN classed the case as A: the witnesses had mistaken the planet Venus for something unknown.