2006-11-27 - Huntsville, AL - Fireball

I looked toward the west and witnessed a blue-green, round, hazy light moving rapidly from north to south.

There was a very thin cloud layer in the sky that did NOT obscure the stars. The object was above this layer and I attribute its hazy appearance to that fact.

The light moved rapidly from a higher to lower altitude and seemed to follow a trajectory that made an angle of about 30 degrees with the ground. From my vantage point at approximately 1250 feet in elevation, it appeared that the object was about 5 miles, or so, distant, and located over the Redstone Arsenal. The object covered a large arc of sky in the very short time in which I viewed it.

The object gave the impression it would impact the ground somwhere south of my location. I can see about 40 miles due to my mountain-top location. I waited for several minutes for a sign of impact, but saw none. The Alabama counties in which an impact could have taken place are Morgan and Marshall. No sound from the object was audible.

I had attributed my sighting to a meteor, until a local newspaper ran an article about a similar sounding object that was seen a day later at a much earlier time (11/28/06 at 17:28).

Search lights, flares, rockets, missiles, and aitcraft are unlikely explanations for this object. Humidity in the air would make search light beams visible and the shape of the spot on the clouds would have changed due to the angle of the light source. The object maintained constant shape. The apparent altitude and angle of sky covered would likely indicate supersonic velocity and probably a sonic boom, especially if the object had to avaoid collision with the ground. The sudden appearance and disappearance of the object, and its constant luminance would also help rule out the other possibilities I mentioned.