NUFORC Sighting 41302

Occurred: 2004-12-24 19:00 Local
Reported: 2004-12-29 21:35 Pacific
Duration: 3 seconds
No of observers: 0

Location: South Webster, OH, USA

Shape: Sphere
Characteristics: Landed

Blue Green Falling Star-No Trail

On the evening of December 24th, 2004 at 7 p.m., eastern standard time, I walked out of my house to bring in my cat for the night. As I was walking out heading southeast in the yard, I noticed in the direct southeast what looked like at first sight to be a star falling 90° down to the earth. It fell in one to three seconds. It was antifreeze green maybe blue green. I distinctly noticed and mentally noted at that moment that there was no trail. I have seen large meteors and small ones; they had trails. I always look up because I am an amateur astronomer and photographer. This object was about the size of a -1 magnitude star; about the size of Venus on a good night, but it was blue green. The other thing I noticed that was interesting was that the moon was nearly full and the sky was cloudless. The night sky was very bright because the moon was high in the sky. This object that I observed was about 40° high in the sky when I first noticed it. I am in southern Ohio and it would put this object over Africa or maybe the Indian Ocean or somewhere abouts in this region based on what I know about where the moon is when it rises in the east. It can be directly over Africa and be hanging in the lower eastern sky in Ohio. The moon was about 60° high to the east of this object in the east. I also remembered hearing on the a.m. radio of an asteroid scheduled to hit the earth but later discovered it was for the year 2029. I also heard something about this asteroid being so large that if it hit the ocean, it would cause a tsunami. So, I thought, if I hear of a tsunami on Christmas Day then it was an asteroid perhaps. I obviously got the 2029 asteroid and tsunami confused with what I thought was a prediction for an asteroid this week. Anyway, this is what I saw and it is my duty to report this siting.

Posted 2005-01-11