Sighting in Vitrolles, April 1, 2026

From their apartment, a witness watched a light in the sky between 9:00 and 9:27 pm. They described it as slightly larger than a star and brighter than the lights of ordinary aircraft. Its colour shifted from pure white to an orange tone as the observation went on. Unlike an airplane's lights, it stayed perfectly still. However, because the witness looked at the sky only intermittently, they noticed that it was gradually sinking toward the horizon. They supplied a full questionnaire along with usable videos and photos. It was the only account collected.

GEIPAN rated the case as low in strangeness but high in consistency, meaning it contained a good amount of reliable, objectively supported information. The investigation concluded that the witness had mistaken Venus for something else. A reconstruction of the sky with Stellarium.fr shows that the planet was indeed at the azimuths the witness gave and was about to set below the horizon during the period of observation. The video led to lowering the elevation the witness had estimated, which fits the real sky situation. The photos show the orange tint, caused by the planet's increasingly low position: its light crosses a growing thickness of atmosphere, which shifts its glow toward red. In a later email, the witness themselves suggested they had confused it with this planet. GEIPAN classified the case as A: observation of Venus.