Sighting in Saint-Léger-des-Vignes, June 30, 2015
Nièvre, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France
Sighting on June 30, 2015 in Saint-Léger-des-Vignes (Nièvre, France). GEIPAN identified the phenomenon with certainty: it was a planet (class A).
What happened
A witness watched two unusual yellow-orange lights in the sky for an extended period between 11:30 pm and midnight. One light was positioned above the other, and the witness took several photographs.
The points of light moved very slowly across the sky, which immediately pointed the investigation toward an astronomical source. A check against a sky chart showed that, that evening, the planets Venus and Jupiter were visible very close together, a little above the west/northwest horizon. This rare apparent closeness is called a conjunction. The sky charts attached to the file show how the phenomenon looked at 11:33 pm and again at 11:55 pm, when the two planets were about to drop below the horizon.
GEIPAN classified the case as A, fully explained: the witness had observed the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter.
Account rewritten by SkyUnknown from the investigation report published by GEIPAN (CNES). The original text and case documents are on the official record.
- Date
- June 30, 2015
- Location
- Saint-Léger-des-Vignes · town centre
- Type of sighting
- From the ground
- Source classification
- A
- Explanation
- Planets
Sources
- See the original document
GEIPAN (CNES)
n° 2015-06-09214
Summary written by SkyUnknown from the facts published by the source.