This fireball was a great deal bigger and brighter than any "falling star" I've ever seen in my 50+ years of life. I've also never seen one of such color nor as long-lived as this one.
Location
Address
Council Bluffs, IA
Latitude
41° 16' 42.95'' N (41.278597°)
Longitude
95° 50' 1.66'' W (-95.833794°)
Elevation
-
Time and Duration
Local Date & Time
2011-10-19 03:23 CDT
UT Date & Time
2011-10-19 08:23 UT
Duration
≈7.5s
Direction
Moving direction
From up right to down left
Descent Angle
225°
Moving
Facing azimuth
335.32317°
First azimuth
335.87904°
First elevation
48°
Last azimuth
326.51387°
Last elevation
20°
Brightness and color
Stellar Magnitude
-13
Color
Bright Whitish-Blue
Concurrent Sound
Observation
No
Remarks
-
Delayed Sound
Observation
No
Remarks
I didn\\\'t hear any sound during or after the sighting, although I was expecting a boom afterwards. The fireball was almost the size of a dime held out at arm\\\'s legth.
Persistent train
Observation
Yes
Duration
10s
Length
40°
Remarks
It gradually got shorter, from end to start of tail, until it disappeared behind the house/trees like the fireball did. It looked very smokey and the color went from bluish-white at the start of the tail to white at the end.
Terminal flash
Observation
Unknown
Remarks
What caught my eyes was seeing a bright, bluish-white light out of the corner of my eye. When I looked up and saw the fireball it\'s bright glow filled about 1/2 of the N/NW sky.
