2014-02-20 - Vero Beach, FL - Fireball

A large orange object emitting a metallic, sparkling contrai, totally unique and different than any object previously experienced.

Somewhere between 9 to 10:30 PM, I spotted a larger than normal round orange shape moving from North to South as I was getting ready for bed. I looked up from my bed through a window and was immediately alerted that this is not a normal light. It was much larger than any other lights in the sky. I live near a small airport and there were many small aircraft in the sky, and I assume, some circling to land. So the contrast was quite large between the planes with small normal colors lights and this much larger brilliant orange light. My first impression was that it was a jet, perhaps on fire. The reason I thought it was on fire was that this orange shiny object has an orange contrail coming out of the rear and streaming back behind it for some distance. This contrail was also orange and it had a particular quality about it. It was clearly visible against the night sky and it looked metallic and as it got closer it looked like the sparkle one would see from fireworks, although the contrail was not cascading like fireworks as it had a consistent stream coming out of the rear of the object.

Its speed was very slow, about the speed of a small aircraft as it approaches a landing. It gave me a few minutes to watch it. When my view started to become blocked from the roof line, I ran to our balcony to continue watching. As it continued across the sky still moving from left to right, north to south, it gradually and smoothly turned to the east and moved away from me. A very short time later it blinked out, disappeared suddenly.