NUFORC Sighting 07559

Occurred: 1998-12-28 19:45 Local
Reported: 1998-12-31 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 3 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Winter Park (just outside Orlando), FL, USA

Shape: Fireball


Large green fireball seen through clouds falling diagonally for 3 seconds and terminating in a flash of white light.

I am not a trained observer, but I am an amature astronomer. I have seen many shooting stars, and this didn't look anything like a shooting star. This is the second green fireball I have seen falling. The last was in the first week of Nov. 98 and that sighting lasted for only a second. That fireball was clearly visible about 30 degrees above the horizon and large enough to see it's head and tail destinctively. Interestingly the tail flared out and was wider farther from the head of the fireball and much thiner near the head. However the last green fireball which I saw on the Dec. 28, 1998 could not be made out clearly because of a dark rainy sky. But I could see a large glowing green light falling in or just behind the clouds above and in front of me as I drove west on 50 outside of Orlando. The fireball *seemed* to have fallen well into the lower parts of the atmosphere when it terminated. Unfortuneatly I have no way of estimating how quickly it was moving or how far away it really was. It just seemed close. Compared to a shooting star it moved very slowly. And seemed to just be falling. After about 3 seconds it terminated with a brilliant flash which lit up the clouds in a white light. Though the fireball itself was green.

Posted 1999-05-24

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