RIBIERS (05) 24.01.2012

On 24 January 2012 at about 19:45 near Ribiers (05), a motorist on a country road saw an intensely bright white cylindrical object apparently stationary at low altitude. He stopped and gestured towards it. No sound was heard. On driving on, he felt it was following him. Back in his village, he went into his garden and found that the lights had turned orange-red. He told his wife and called the gendarmes. Gendarmes who attended that evening saw no light, and enquiries among neighbours yielded no other account. GEIPAN notes that a light low on the horizon that seems to follow an observer and stop when he stops suggests a celestial body whose azimuth remains constant. In the initial reported direction, about 250°, described as southwest, Venus was indeed very bright, magnitude -3.5, at an elevation of 10°; see the 2 right-hand arrows on the map and the Stellarium chart. In the second part, the left-hand map arrow indicates a southeastward view towards Sirius, the brightest star in the sky at magnitude -1.45. Because it is fainter than Venus, GEIPAN explains that it would naturally appear farther away to the witness. Given uncertainty over the viewing directions, GEIPAN classifies the case B: probable observation of Venus and Sirius.