Fireball report

Reports Report 3987j (Event 3987-2022)

Observer
Name	Gene A
Experience Level	3/5
Remarks	I’ve looked at the sky all my life and I have seen a lot of cool things but this was unique. I never personally saw anything like this before. The closest example that I have seen was on TV was when the second space shuttle blew up over Texas. The news showed fragments streaking through the sky. But I think there were more pieces to what I saw tonight as compared to the TV footage of the shuttle. I do have some video but it is really poor quality. The pieces can be seen briefly however.

Location
Address	Helena, MT
Latitude	46° 36' 33.28'' N (46.609245°)
Longitude	112° 3' 0.24'' W (-112.050068°)
Elevation	1195.484619m

Time and Duration
Local Date & Time	2022-07-12 22:08 MDT
UT Date & Time	2022-07-13 04:08 UT
Duration	≈20s

Direction
Moving direction	From up right to down left
Descent Angle	261°

Moving
Facing azimuth	204.45°
First azimuth	241.39°
First elevation	72°
Last azimuth	95.64°
Last elevation	43°

Brightness and color
Stellar Magnitude	-12
Color	Light Yellow, White

Concurrent Sound
Observation	No
Remarks	-

Delayed Sound
Observation	No
Remarks	-

Persistent train
Observation	Unknown
Duration	-
Length	-
Remarks	-

Terminal flash
Observation	No
Remarks	-

Fragmentation
Observation	Yes
Remarks	I first saw it not quite straight above me coming from the southwest. There were about 30 or so pieces traveling in a slightly stretched out group. They were pretty bright and white at first. They traveled together and gradually became fewer. Of the ones that disappeared, it was mostly smaller ones. But some bigger ones seemed to either disappear or they broke into smaller pieces. The pieces all traveled sort of east but also a little north. Then they disappeared before they got to the horizon.But the sky in that direction was hazier than the sky where I first saw it so it may be that the pieces were just becoming more obscured causing them to LOOK like they became dimmer and turned yellow. On the other hand, they might well have been burning up.

Fragmentation

Observation

Yes

Remarks

I first saw it not quite straight above me coming from the southwest. There were about 30 or so pieces traveling in a slightly stretched out group. They were pretty bright and white at first. They traveled together and gradually became fewer. Of the ones that disappeared, it was mostly smaller ones. But some bigger ones seemed to either disappear or they broke into smaller pieces. The pieces all traveled sort of east but also a little north. Then they disappeared before they got to the horizon.But the sky in that direction was hazier than the sky where I first saw it so it may be that the pieces were just becoming more obscured causing them to LOOK like they became dimmer and turned yellow. On the other hand, they might well have been burning up.