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Remarks |
This took place seconds after I stepped out onto my east-facing patio. Although I quickly looked up,I assume I only saw part of the event because of the roof of my house, only seeing it once it was in front of me. It lasted approximately 2.5 - 3 seconds from directly above me. Since it was moving slightly ESE, it was in a "hole" between trees that frame my viewing horizon and I could see its entire path. I could not see any inclination in its trajectory, rather it appeared to proceed perfectly horizontally to the east. In the last .75 seconds or so, there was a pronounced dip or curve towards the earth. I figured it was following the curvature of the earth far out over the Atlantic, which is 30 miles or so from my house. This is when it, pun intended, revealed its true colors. Thinking back, what I saw was a bright golden-white streak with no trail (probably a streak from persistence of vision) with a faint bluish gaseous tinge at its leading edge. Then in the last .75 seconds as it curved towards the earth, it became engulfed in a very visually bright deep blue with rays or fingers extending outward that had a gradient from the deep blue to lighter and lighter blues. As to me it was apparently moving downwards these seemed to extend up at about 60 or 70 degrees.Simultaneously, in the last .5 seconds, a bright golden-yellow flame grew from within the deep blue ball or mass. The object became about 3 times larger than its original apparent diameter, with 2/3 of that being the flame. I say flame because that is exactly how it looked. From my position "behind" the fireball it looked as if a candle flame with a brighter, deeper gold color had been superimposed on a more deep blue gas flame. It had clearly defined edges, a certain solidity to it, and in the very last instant even appeared to twist or flicker. Very surprising, and in the moment it made me wonder if this was somehow a manmade object burning up. It then went dark and disappeared about 30 degrees above the horizon. The flame was the last part to be seen, the blue disappearing first. I then of course turned around and looked west where it had come from. I immediately noticed a fairly neat rectangle of cloud or smoke or vapor just to the north of the fireball's path and moving north at a good clip while holding its shape. Visually the cloud extended directly to the west from about 85 degrees to about 45 degrees above the horizon. This made me wonder if it was associated with the fireball, but I was confused as it seemed far too wide, about 10 - 15 degrees visually. As I wondered I searched the sky and it was absolutely the only thing in it. The sky was completely clear and had been for hours as far as I could recall. Anyway the thin rectangular mat of cloud continued to move quickly north. If it was as high up as it seemed, it had to be doing a couple hundred miles an hour so I guess the upper-level winds were pretty strong.
The fireball was very bright and I think I estimated its brightn |
