2010-08-12 - Tecumseh, KS - Circle

Slow-moving, glowing white/orange ball

My friend and I were driving East towards Tecumseh, just outside Topeka, to watch the Perseid meteor shower when we saw a bright white light that sort of had an orange glow ahead of us. It was about twice the size of Venus (as it appears during this time of year).

At first I thought maybe it was an abnormally bright light on top of a radio tower or that it was Venus but since it was larger, brighter and had a steady glow, I started to think maybe it was a plane or helicopter falling from the sky... It looked like a ball of fire and it moved at a slow, steady speed downwards toward the horizon (I stopped my car for a moment to make sure it was actually moving).

Then it gradually started to move diagonally towards the north, then almost completely parallel to the horizon and then down until I could no longer see it because of trees on the horizon.

While I have no idea how large it was or how far away it was, it was about 40 degrees from the eastern horizon when we first saw it. It also had a steady glow, didn't twinkle or fade out or anything. Just stayed a constant brightness comparable to Venus's but white with a slightly orange outline and an almost burning appearance (which might not make it a steady glow... but it didn't flicker or anything. It just seemed to "boil" slightly as a ball engulfed in flames would).

I considered the idea that it could be something someone had shot into the air, like some sort of firework that came falling to the ground but it appeared to be very far away and thus would be quite large (I'm not sure if you can really measure the distance of something with no idea what the object is... or how large it is... so this guess is based on the fact that the trees in the horizon were probably a mile away or so).