Luminous ball in Reims seen as Venus

Summary

On February 5, 1977, two people in Reims observed a luminous ball in the western sky. The object made no sound and remained motionless for over an hour before completely disappearing. Although the testimony was brief, the witnesses' credibility was never questioned. The description of the phenomenon matched many features of Venus, which was visible and particularly bright in that part of the sky. There was no error in visual perception, but rather in the interpretation of the observation, possibly influenced by fatigue and nighttime conditions. The GEIPAN classified the case as "A", meaning an observation attributed to a misidentification with a known astronomical object.