NUFORC Sighting 41765

Occurred: 2005-02-03 20:00 Local
Reported: 2005-02-04 11:05 Pacific
Duration: 5-7 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Phoenix, AZ, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object, Left a trail, Aircraft nearby

Reddish fireball

At approximately 8:00pm, Thursday evening on Feb 3rd I walked out of my house with my dog for a walk.

As I walked into the park next to my house, looking directly north from 40th street/Greenway Rd where I live, I saw what at first glance I thought was a shooting star. Then I realized how big it was, how low it was in the sky. It had quite a long streaming tail which appeared gaseous. The trail was fairly long, about 3x the diameter of the main object. The main object, at arms length I would say was the size of a nickel. It looked exactly like a comet. It was reddish in color.

It was moving from East to West, horizontal to the ground although it looked like it was going to come down. It did not move in any erratic patterns. I ran towards it but lost view of it behind trees.

Once I realized there was no impact...I pretty much ruled out that it was a meteor. I did see a private jet flying into Scottsdale airport at that exact moment. The pilot of the jet had to have seen it.

Posted 2005-02-08