NUFORC Sighting 91356

Occurred: 2012-05-08 01:30 Local
Reported: 2012-07-31 18:33 Pacific
Duration: 5 seconds
No of observers: 2

Location: Springfield, OR, USA

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

Fireball seen over Springfield, Oregon

At roughly 1:30 a.m., May 8, 2012, my friend and I had just returned to the Eugene area from Portland when we saw a fireball falling from the sky. I was driving, and I saw the flash above and ahead and slightly to the left of our vehicle.

We were driving due west at that time on Centennial Blvd. in Springfield, OR, which means that the object was traveling from south to north. The sighting lasted only a few seconds and ended when the object disappeared from view to the north (the treeline blocked our line of sight).

My friend and I afterwards agreed that the object was unlike anything either of us has ever seen before. I'm familiar with Chinese lanterns, having seen plenty of them in the U.S. and Asia, and there's no way this was a Chinese lantern.

I've also seen plenty of shooting stars, and this object was "falling" much too slowly to have been a meteor. I use the term "falling" advisedly, because it did not seem to be in a natural free! fall. It was going down quickly, but it also seemed like it was floating. The strange thing about this sighting is that I would describe the object I saw as orange, or orange-yellow, whereas my friend saw something green. I don't know what to make of that discrepancy. Neither of us had been drinking or using drugs.

Posted 2012-08-05