NUFORC Sighting 79622

Occurred: 2010-12-31 23:50 Local
Reported: 2011-01-10 17:55 Pacific
Duration: 1 minute
No of observers: 2

Location: Montgomery, PA, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object

Multiple witness Fireball sighting with animal reaction

Leaving the house with my girlfriend to have a cigarette before the New Years Eve ball dropped, my girlfriend noticed one very large, very luminescent fireball/ glowing object in the northern sky several degrees from the route 15 mountain skyline. The object in question had a yellow glow to it. At first we believed we were viewing a weapon, possibly a nuclear warhead, or some form of dangerous device, however it did not show trajectory like a rocket.. instead it simply hovered in the air, not moving, nor emitting any sound.

After staring at the object less than a minute, it rapidly accelerated to the west in a very unnatural manner, and faded from view in three very distinct phases. The fading was not natural or progressive, instead sudden with 3 steps of brilliance, each lower than the last, leading us to believe that it was not a rocket burning up the remaining fuel in a gradual manner, a firework, or any natural or man made object fading from the night's sky. It truly looked as though it left earth, completely gone from sight after the third distinct and rapid phase of dimming.

My girlfriend's dog had been on edge all day, aggressively barking, with hair raised on her body; at an area in the forest each time she was let out that day. She never exhibited such a reaction, especially to an unseen presence from the woods, and given what we experienced that night, the pet's reactions seemed eerily appropriate to what others with pets reported during sightings.

Posted 2011-01-31