Sighting in Sainte-Clotilde, March 11, 2014

From a south-facing window, a witness noticed a very bright point of light at 3:05 a.m., off to their left, meaning toward the east. It rose slowly in the sky, and they watched it for 40 minutes. The witness's sketch placed the phenomenon at an azimuth of 109°.

Investigators compared this direction with sky charts generated by the Winstars software for 3:05 and 3:40. The charts show the planet Venus, very bright in the morning sky, at an azimuth of 107° as it rose. GEIPAN therefore classified the case as A: the witness had observed Venus.

The witness did not recognize it. A celestial body near the horizon is often perceived not as a star or planet but as an object flying over the landscape. The weather that night may also have played a part: according to Infoclimat, humidity was only 66%, which made the sky unusually clear for the region, whereas other readings that week showed at least 76%. Finally, had the phenomenon been something other than Venus, the witness, who was looking exactly in the planet's direction, would have seen both the phenomenon and Venus in the sky.