NUFORC Sighting 79570

Occurred: 2011-01-06 19:20 Local
Reported: 2011-01-06 20:47 Pacific
Duration: 45 to 60 seconds
No of observers: 4

Location: Wildomar, CA, USA

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

Witnessed a falling large fireball that broke into three hovering pieces before vanishing Tuesday night 1/6/11. 7:20 PM.

1/6/11 Wildomar, Ca.

Approx . 7:20 PM I was setting in my living room watching TV. My chair faces the house front windows—drapes were open—and I noticed a fireball falling in the night sky. I have windows running floor to ceiling in the front of my house. I jumped up to run out the front door to get a better look—and yelled for my 14 year old daughter and her two friends to come out and look with me. All 4 of us witnessed what appeared to be a fireball meteor falling from overhead due west.

We all saw the object as it was about 45 degree angle from the horizon. My house faces due west –and faces Lake Elsinore. My house sets on a hillside about 2300 ft elevation. The night sky was very clear and you could see the stars. Earlier in the evening I noticed the moon was a small crescent sliver—but had already dropped below the horizon at the time of this sighting. As the 4 of us continued to observe the falling object—I mentioned to the girls that it may be a meteor or a falling satellite—it appeared to falling directly over Lake elsinore—and falling straight down. I first caught view of the object as it appeared to be about 45 degrees angle. As the object continued falling—at about 30 degrees—the object split into 3 pieces. I expected it to then fizzle out—but the three pieces then stopped in mid air—at about 25 degrees angle and hovered. The pieces did not exhibit the fireball appearance –they were each a bright white light and seemed to move indepe! ndent of each other—but all three setting on the same level—but lightly moving up and down relative to each other. They them began a slow movement to the left—or a south direction. As they continued to move towards the left I lost sight of them behind a large tree in the yard across the street. As I moved to the other side of my drive way to get a view from the other side of the tree—they had vanished. The original fireball size appeared to be about 1/4th the size of the moon—if it were setting in that part of the sky ( the moon had already dropped below the horizon). The three separate pieces looked to be a size if you were to break the original fireball into three pieces. As the three pieces set hovering—they appeared to be in size –all three together—left to right—about the width of the moon. The time duration of the event was probably about 45 seconds from when I first saw the object to when it split into three pieces—and then another 30 seconds watching t! he three pieces hovering, moving to the left, then vanishing. ! About 75 seconds in all. My first reaction on seeing the fireball was that it was a large meteor or a falling satellite as there appeared to be quite a bit of debris coming off of the object and training behind it. But—when it split into three pieces that hovered for a period of time—I became curious as to what it really was. My daughter was able to get about 10 seconds of video of the object on her EVO phone. Her friend got 4 still photos on her cell phone.

NUFORC Note:

Suspected parachute jumpers. PD

Posted 2011-01-31