NUFORC Sighting 10907

Occurred: 1999-11-16 19:15 Local
Reported: 1999-11-17 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 25seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Cincinnati, OH, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Left a trail, Emitted other objects

Bright green fireball 20-25deg. above horizon the size of 1/2 thunmbnail at arms length traveling s.west to n.east for 25 seconds. Broke up into 4 pieces.

Approx. 7:00-7:15pm Tuesday evening I was driving west on West Chester road, (about 12 miles north of downtown Cincinnati, OH) when I noticed a Bright white fireball in the western sky. Knowing that the Leonid showers where near I thought "Wow, this could mean they are starting early and should be very good tonight"but quickly realized that the Leonids would be from the East, not the West. It quickly turned bright green and grew to the size of about 1/2 thumbnail at arms length. An orange tail stretched out behind the fireball to a length of approx. 1 1/2 to 2 fists when held at arms length. It arched across the night sky in front of me from the left of my windshield to my right passenger window and appeared to break into 4 large pieces, (now yellow) and drop behind the trees to my right. It appeared very low in the sky and most remarkably, it seemed to move in slow motion for a metiorite. To illustrate just how long it was in the sky, about 1/2 way through its flight, I had time to slow the car down and remove my seat belt to watch it. Just then I saw the headlights of another car approaching from the other direction and since this was a winding country road, I thought I had better pay more attention to my driving and proceeded to drive past this approaching car and when I pulled off the road to see if I could still see the tail, I was shocked to see it still traveling above the tree line over my right shoulder. I am a photographer, 41 years old, 20-10 vision, and have watched the Persius metiorite shower every year for the last 18 years from a beach in North Carolina. I have seen metiorites impact in the ocean and have seen them so close that my wife and I could hear them breaking up. None have ever lasted for more than a few seconds. This reminded me of the film of the re-entry of the U.S. space station over Australia many years ago. This was the most impressive event I have ever seen. Most of the city saw the object and the radio, (700 WLW) talked about it for the rest of! the nig ht. Reports included the 5 air traffic controllers at Greater Cincinnati Airport saying that they were "frozen" by the sight of this and that they had never seen anything like it in their 15 years in the tower. When asked if it appeared on radar one replied, (sic) No, I think it was was too fast for the radar to pick up, but when pressed he replied that he was too busy watching it out the window to look at the radar scope. I wonder if they will review the tapes. Tim Headrick, the weatherman on our Chanel 12 WKRC-TV said that he also saw the object and it appeared to him to be at least the size of a semi tractor-trailer. He commented that it could be one of three things; 1) Leonid metiorite shower 2) Re-entering "Space Junk" 3) "Something else" infering a UFO You might like to talk to him.

Posted 1999-11-17

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