2010-09-20 - San Jose, CA - Fireball

redish orange fireball in the sky south of san jose

we were driving south bound on capitol expwy passing up senter road. the night was clear and the moon was bright. we looked up towards morgan hill and saw a bright red light. it was approx the same location as the bright star east of the moon but on the opposite side. for about 4 seconds it turned real bright almost white, then orange. we thought it was a low helicopter at first. then it started moving up and west. it had a sharp tail. i was trying to focus i thought maybe its a red helicopter. but the object seem real far, no way it was a helicopter.

we exited capitol onto monterey road and went south. the object was still in view but the tail started breaking off into little pieces, looked somewhat like a missle. then it had no more tail and was just an orange ball. i was starting to think it was a star. but it glowed red. my friend said he saw a haze around it but i didnt see the haze. we got to skyway rd about a mile from capitol. we parked to get a stable look. and as we watched it, it disapeared.