2012-09-10 - Niagara Falls, NY - Fireball

A bright yellow point of light surrounded by distinct orange sphere moving north to south.

At about 8:20 pm on 9/10/2012, in Niagara Falls, NY, I was showing a bicycle to a young girl and her mother in my backyard. The young girl saw something in the sky visible to her only at first because of the house blocking our view. She pointed up and asked “What the heck is that?” Stepping into her view point, we both saw an extremely bright light moving as fast as a high altitude jet moving north to south. It seemed to have a central bright light similar to a yellow colored welding arc surrounded by a less bright disk or sphere. (more orange in color) The unique aspect of the orange sphere was that, unlike atmospheric glow, it was not hazy but had a distinct sharp edge to it.

There was no detectable wind at ground level and upper atmosphere winds had been west to east all day.

At this point I called my wife out of the house to see what we were seeing. Now, it was directly overhead.

I admit that my first interpretation of the object was most likely a Chinese Lantern. But the overall brightness of the object and its movement not correlated with the prevailing winds made me think otherwise. The central bright light looked less like a candle burning and more like a welding torch or magnesium burning. Very bright! I still had time to get my binoculars from the house and when focusing on the object it remained the same size as it appeared to the naked eye. Probably very distant.

My neighbor and her daughter are average people as my wife is. No special interest in UFO’s or astronomy. I have been an amateur astronomer since my teens and make a habit of observing the night sky every chance I get. I can honestly say that I have never seen anything like this object in my life – I am 65 years old! bright