1998-08-27 - Oregon, OH - Fireball

Bright Orange Fireball appeared in SW sky. Traveled slowly at about 30 degrees across the southern sky toward the east. No sound, long tail.

I live on the shoreline of Lake Erie. My girlfriend and I are police officers and both work the night shift. We both are very enthusiastic about the night sky and were about to use my telescope on this date. It was an unusual night right from the beginning. At about 2400 hrs. we both observed a spectacular display of the Northern Lights all along the length of the Lake. That is unusual here. It lasted approximately 20 minutes. Shortly thereafter, we went back to the telescope and were observing Jupiter and Saturn. At approx. 0130 hrs. we were both startled by a Large Orange Fireball that appeared in the SW sky. It traveled very slowly in a straight path at approx. 30 degrees to the southern horizon toward the SE. The object had a very long tail which was also Bright Orange. We did witness any sound. It is very quiet here also. It was difficult to say how far away it was. Although, it didn't appear to be very far away. we viewed it until we lost it in the horizon....it didn't appear to burn up. We both have seen many things in the night sky before from many types of meteorites to having seen sattelites return to earth. but have not seen anything like this. I probably would not have reported this if I hadn't heard of so many similiar sights on your appearance on the Art Bell Program the other night. Another funny thing happened that morning. I had to appear in court that morning and drove my truck. It is newer with the digital compass in the rearview mirror. I noticed that the directional indicator was off during the trip both to and from court. It was approximately 45 degrees off from the reading that it should have been giving. It has not done that since that date.