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Remarks |
We thought it was a shooting star at first, but it was much brighter, then within a second, developed an impressive long, fat, golden orange tail that was about 3/4" long from our field of view. It continued to grow in overall brilliance as it traversed the sky from slightly north of due east to about 40° northward. The duration was approximately 6-7 seconds we estimate. It was about the same color of Mars, and brighter than Mars, Venus, or Jupiter in the sky currently. We watched in awe, and I thought about trying to take a video, but we thought it would disappear like a shooting star before I got the camera on my phone ready and I didn't want to miss the event. Turns out, we may have had time if we started immediately, but would've just captured maybe the tail end
of about 2 seconds. We didn't realize we were witnessing a fireball, and we've never seen one before. As it slowly disappeared, I could still slightly still see the head for about another 1/2 second. We are on a rural farmstead, and were seated on the front porch facing due East. I remember thinking how it looked so much like a firework it was in its brilliance, but straight in its course, traveling downward from above, gracefully, and silently. We were left dumb-struck and full of awe by the sighting. Definitely a once-in-a-lifetime event! |
