Reports Report 3371ah (Event 3371-2017)
| Observer | |
|---|---|
| Name | Halan G |
| Experience Level | 2/5 |
| Remarks | A friend and I decided to stargaze because it was a clear night. We drove out to Cleveland national forest and parked in a turnout on the side of the mountain facing away from the city. We hear coyotes yelping and barking, not howling. Then we heard a loud boom like a gunshot from the same direction. Then a few seconds later we saw a bright bright orange ball shoot up towards the sky perpendicular to the horizon with a bright orange trail. It began to arc towards our left. We thought it was a flare gun at first because of the color, proximity, how low to the horizon it was, the potential gunshot boom, and the coyotes yelping. But the flame died down and a small red light continued to fly across the sky at a much higher degree which is not a characteristic of a flare gun. It arced over us with a grey trail that looked like the two ends of an arrowhead. It appeared to have turned either away for towards us (I was terrified at this point) but it slowly began to disappear leaving only a wonky trail behind that was no longer moving but just kind of pulsating and moving around. A night I will never ever forget and an experience that occurred only because a friend and I spontaneously decided to stargaze. |
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Address | Lake Elsinore, CA |
| Latitude | 33° 37' 34.33'' N (33.626202°) |
| Longitude | 117° 22' 5.92'' W (-117.368312°) |
| Elevation | 887.012m |
| Time and Duration | |
|---|---|
| Local Date & Time | 2017-09-23 22:50 PDT |
| UT Date & Time | 2017-09-24 05:50 UT |
| Duration | ≈20s |
| Direction | |
|---|---|
| Moving direction | From down to up |
| Descent Angle | - |
| Moving | |
|---|---|
| Facing azimuth | 228.32° |
| First azimuth | 279.37° |
| First elevation | - |
| Last azimuth | 164.19° |
| Last elevation | 75° |
| Brightness and color | |
|---|---|
| Stellar Magnitude | -16 |
| Color | Orange, Red |
| Concurrent Sound | |
|---|---|
| Observation | Yes |
| Remarks | I heard what I thought at the time was a gunshot in the mountains beyond me in the same direction I could hear coyotes or dogs barking and yelping. The sound came before the sighting of the fireball |
| Delayed Sound | |
|---|---|
| Observation | No |
| Remarks | - |
| Persistent train | |
|---|---|
| Observation | Yes |
| Duration | 5s |
| Length | 16° |
| Remarks | I saw the initial fireball as an orange bright ball with an orange train that wasn't a straight line of a train but more of a curvy line. When the brightness of the ball died down it was a smaller red light (but still much brighter than anything else in the sky) traveling higher in the atmosphere and its train also changed to grey mist following the ball like 2 ends of an arrowhead. |
| Terminal flash | |
|---|---|
| Observation | No |
| Remarks | - |
| Fragmentation | |
|---|---|
| Observation | Unknown |
| Remarks | - |