Very large dancing fireball, 35-40 degrees above NE horizon, with additional small fiery lights emerging and descending toward horizon
On Wednesday, December 17th, at around 7:45pm. What looked like a large ball of fire (10x the size of largest nearby star), pulsating from red to orange, danced like a firefly 34-40 degrees above the NE horizon for 2-3 minutes. Then the object stopped flashing red-orange, turned solid reddish-orange and remained somewhat stationary for another maybe 2 minutes, during which time much smaller (small-star-sized) red-orange object(s) appeared from within and below the large fiery object and proceeded to approach the horizon, forming a completely vertical dotted line of small fiery lights extending from the larger object. As the line of smaller lights proceeded towards the horizon, the distance between the smaller fiery lights and the larger original object grew greater until the smaller objects were within a couple of degrees from the horizon and then disappeared one by one. The large fireball remained stationary for about another minute after the smaller ones disappeared, then it began flashing red-orange and started dancing again, still in the same location. Then the light dimmed and the object danced off to the north, remaining 35-40 degrees above the horizon. It traveled in this manner for 45 seconds or so, through a distance of air space that usually takes a satellite 3-4 times longer to pass through, and then it just disappeared.
On Wednesday, December 17th, at around 7:45pm. What looked like a large ball of fire (10x the size of largest nearby star), pulsating from red to orange, danced like a firefly 34-40 degrees above the NE horizon for 2-3 minutes. Then the object stopped flashing red-orange, turned solid reddish-orange and remained somewhat stationary for another maybe 2 minutes, during which time much smaller (small-star-sized) red-orange object(s) appeared from within and below the large fiery object and proceeded to approach the horizon, forming a completely vertical dotted line of small fiery lights extending from the larger object. As the line of smaller lights proceeded towards the horizon, the distance between the smaller fiery lights and the larger original object grew greater until the smaller objects were within a couple of degrees from the horizon and then disappeared one by one. The large fireball remained stationary for about another minute after the smaller ones disappeared, then it began flashing red-orange and started dancing again, still in the same location. Then the light dimmed and the object danced off to the north, remaining 35-40 degrees above the horizon. It traveled in this manner for 45 seconds or so, through a distance of air space that usually takes a satellite 3-4 times longer to pass through, and then it just disappeared.
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Eureka
USA
7 minutes
7 minutes
40.78
-124.16
fireball
CA
Occurred : 12/17/2003 19:45 (Entered as : 12/17/2003 19:45) Reported: 12/21/2003 2:30:17 PM 14:30 Posted: 1/17/2004 Location: Eureka, CA Shape: Fireball Duration: 7 minutes Characteristics: There were lights on the object, The object emitted other objects, The object changed color
Very large dancing fireball, 35-40 degrees above NE horizon, with additional small fiery lights emerging and descending toward horizon