NUFORC Sighting 84382

Occurred: 2011-10-05 19:30 Local
Reported: 2011-10-07 10:01 Pacific
Duration: 4 min.
No of observers: 2

Location: Garden City, MI, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object

Large bright orange/red "fireball" that faded and exposed a black flat object

My husband and I were enjoying a gorgeous evening on our front porch. It was approx. 7:30pm and just approaching dusk. I had gotten up to go into the house (walking towards the back door up the driveway) when my husband said “What is that? Come look at this” I turn back around, looked south (our home faces south) and saw a very large and bright orange/red glowing object. It looked to be heading in a strong North/West direction on a steady path. I have lived on this same block for 40 years and I am in the path of arriving and departing planes from Metro airport. I can tell you that there have been only a couple of times when I’ve seen a plane that low flying in an East or West direction. We continued to stand in awe and must have asked each other five times “what is that?” I want to say it looked like something large was on fire. Its diameter was approx. two to three times the size of our brightest stars. It was not an airplane I know that for sure. The s! ky was clear and beautiful and there was no wind.

I ran inside to get my binoculars and when I came back out it was still in sight. There are a lot of trees so my field of view was becoming limited. I have a powerful pair of binoculars and it is often hard to find objects right away because of this (plus I was nervous). I had to keep taking them down to estimate the position because it was still traveling on its path. At one of these times, my husband gasped and said “It stopped glowing; now it’s black.” I had only maybe 30 seconds left of viewing and I still couldn’t bring it into view with the binoculars so I just stood there staring at the black object until it left our view. After the fire faded, the object appeared to be a lot higher than I had originally thought. It was so far up there that I could not discern the size or shape of it. It did seem like I was seeing a flat object though.

It was still dusk so it was light enough to know what it was not. It was not a lantern, hot air balloon, or airplane. Aircraft lights are not huge, orange, or glowing. Even at this time of day aircraft lights are not even visible yet. Wind does not usually carry things westerly as far as I know. I am more than curious as to what this was.

Posted 2011-10-10

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