A bright ball in the French sky

Summary

On January 26, 2015, a witness in the Hautes-Alpes observed a bright orange ball in the sky, much brighter than Venus and twice as large. Curious, the witness tried to photograph the phenomenon ten minutes later, but it had already disappeared. Initially, the witness thought the object below the Moon was Venus, but after analyzing the sky, it was determined to be Mars, which had a magnitude of 1.36 that day—slightly brighter than the stars of the Big Dipper. Further down the same line was Venus, with a magnitude of 3.34, approximately four times brighter. Because Venus was setting, it appeared more reddish. Fifteen minutes later, Venus had set and was no longer visible. The GEIPAN classified this well-documented case as category A, considering the witness had certainly observed Venus at its setting.