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Remarks |
I live in Bortle 4 skies and on Oct 3 the night sky was very clear and I had been out marvelling at the dark lanes in the the milky way. Minutes later I was walking back to the house facing the northeast and wearing a red-light headlamp, so my eyes were dark adapted. I was looking down so I could watch where I was stepping in the dark when suddenly there was a very bright bluish/white light coming from behind/overhead, which for a moment I thought were headlights from a vehicle approaching me from behind. The light was very bright and I could clearly see the shadow of my body moving on the ground. I've been outside many times before during the full moon and I estimate that this was several magnitudes brighter. I was startled and turned around just in time to see a bright orange fireball falling almost due west. I observed at least one fragment (looking like a spark) coming off of the main object. The fireball snuffed out maybe 10 degrees above the western horizon and I did not notice any significant glow or smoke trail left behind. The entire event lasted maybe 5 seconds but the portion of the fireball that I directly observed lasted only 1 or 2 seconds. I stood still for maybe another 30 seconds listening for a sonic boom but I did not hear anything. |
