2012-09-22 - Danville, IL - Fireball

Slow moving glow in night sky

I am an Amateur Radio Extra Operator.

On the evening of September 22, 2012 @ 0755 central time, I stepped out of my ham shack for a little break. The door to my ham shack is facing east. It was dark outside and the moon was low in the South West at the time.

I noticed a reddish, orange glow in the sky above my garage. The glow was located about 50 degrees off of the horizon in the northeast direction which is about 15 degrees north from my ham shack. This glow seemed to be moving in a south east direction. When I first noticed the glow, it was fairly large and when it disappeared it was about ¼ its original size.

I watched it move across the sky for about 3 to 5 minutes before it seem to completely disappear. About a minute before it disappeared, I ran to my house and alerted my wife who also witnessed it for about one minute before it disappeared. When it disappeared it wasn’t due to it going over the horizon, it was like a switch was turned off and it disappeared about 30 degrees over the southeast horizon.

The glow seemed to have a small tail on it and it appeared to be glowing. This tail was more dominate while the glow was in the northeast sky than it was in the south east sky; it reminded me of a Chinese lantern. I could not tell how high it was due to lack of clouds or anything else to gauge its distance from. I do remember that there was no sound at all from the glow.

The glow seemed to moving in a straight line, there was no noticeable maneuvering from the glow.

I was raised on various USAF bases around the world for 18 years, and then served 16 years in the US Navy. I have seen lots of aircraft in the sky at night but this type of glow I have never seen before.


((NUFORC Note: We spoke via telephone with this witness, and he seemed to us to be exceptionally eloquent and objective in his description of his sighting. We suspect that he is a skilled observer, and a very reliable witness. PD))