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The Great Fireball of
August 3, 2008
August 4, 2008
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The brightness and the color
dissipated very quickly and the object "went out" before hitting the
ground. I was relieved to see the pieces burn out before they impacted
the ground.
The initial bright flash was a piercing and brilliant white very much
like a huge camera flash but it lasted much longer than a camera flash.
The brightness was way beyond a camera flash! The whole flight from
south to north across the western sky was about a second to a second and
a half.
I heard no sound. The initial
flash was so bright and seemed so close to me that my initial thought
was a stealth helicopter had flown up behind me and turned on an
amazingly bright searchlight. I was still trying to take in the
brilliant white flash when it changed into the blue-green color. The
object left a trail of bright orange-yellow debris which stayed glowing
for a small portion of the total time.
The object was so large and the initial brilliant flash so bright that I
expected to hear all three of our local fire sirens. I heard none. I
waited for about 3 minutes for any possible sonic boom before getting on
my cell phone to tell my daughter about the experience. As I spoke to
her about it, my heart was pounding, my breathing rapid. It was quite
exciting.
The replay of the experience in my mind emphasizes the brilliance of the
light and shadows that were thrown. The light reflecting off the clam
shells of my driveway was extremely bright. In retrospect, I realize
that it was a very stupid thing to look up into the light of the burning
object. I thought about welder's blindness; the light was that bright.
Seeing this object was a very moving experience that I will remember for
ever. I have written this in hopes that others experienced this sight
and were equally amazed by it. You were not alone.
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Dear BEN--
I hope this is interesting enough for your column. Print any, all or none
of it. And thanks for the continual coverage of Downe Township.
Bernie///
At approximately 10:00PM on
August 3, 2008 I was walking down my driveway to lock my gate. Roxy, my
golden retriever, was walking along about 10 feet to my left rear. I live
in a a very rural, secluded area of Newport, NJ. I can not see a single
light in any direction from where I live. The temperature was in the
mid-70s and the air was dry. No thunderstorms were visible nor predicted.
The sky was totally clear with all constellations and major stars visible.
There was no moon.
As I walked down the lane toward the gate the following took place:
A flash of amazingly bright white light appeared behind me. As I turned
around to look I realized that shadows from the tree branches along the
lane were visible on the ground because of the brilliance of the light. I
could easily see Roxy's brilliant golden coat as well as her shadow. The
shadows were accentuated by the brilliance and the color of the light.
I looked up into the sky through the trees to see a brilliant ball of
white light transform into an enormous elongated cylinder-shape of
blue-green light. As it flew across the sky pieces of the object were
falling off to the sides as it moved rapidly across the western sky in a
downward arc from south to north.
The object was so large that even as it broke apart and the pieces seemed
to have a 3-dimensional shape. It was not a pin point of light. I have no
way of estimating speed, height, distance from me or whether the object
hit the ground although it didn't seem to impact. I have watched hundreds
of meteors and objects in the sky but I have never experienced the
brilliance of any light like this object nor anything of its huge,
apparent size. It's possible that the brightness made it look larger
physically than it really was. The brightness was astounding. |
