1998-10-04 - Belmont, NY - Circle

A pencil lead streak across the sky dropped hundreds of miles, the object slowly move toward the west.

I was outside looking for something in the sky when this thing streaked across 3/4 of the sky. It started like a sharp pencle lead drawing a line across the sky, and the streak became a little widerer as it crossed the sky. The streak was a dull orange in color, and there was no flash of light like a meteor would produce. It traveled from a south by south-east toward the north by north-west in two seconds. It seemed to disappear into the north sky, but a few seconds later I realized the tail was the only thing that disappeared. The object had come to a complete stop, and the object was dropping toward me position. It dropped until it was four time size of Mars, or about the size of a 22-cal bullet. It looked like a distant white star when it stopped in the sky, but it looked like a bright white-orange ball when it stopped dropping toward my direction. It was about 1/2 mile north of my position, and its elevation was at about 10,000 ft. when it slowly (400 or 500 mph) moved due west of my position. My view was obscured by some trees, and I lost site of the object. I moved to a different location, but the object was out of my view. The object made no sound, nor did I see another tail or exhaust. The whole thing lasted a very short time, but the westerly movement was the most time consuming. This is the second time I have witnessed a strange object moving due west.