Venus among the Pleiades mistaken for a UFO at Marsaneix

Summary

In the early hours of 2 April 2004, several witnesses in Dordogne alerted the gendarmerie after spotting a very bright point of light in the western sky, about 30 degrees above the horizon and seemingly moving slowly. Officers who responded confirmed it was the planet Venus, visible at the time among the stars of the Pleiades cluster. GEIPAN noted that this conjunction, which recurs every eight years, can be particularly striking and understandably cause confusion. The case was classified A — fully identified.