NUFORC Sighting 09608

Occurred: 1999-09-01 21:30 Local
Reported: 1999-09-08 00:00 Pacific
Duration: Aprox 2 min.
No of observers: 5

Location: Lake Trinity (Aprox. 30 miles north of Redding, CA), CA, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Lights on object, Left a trail, Emitted other objects, Changed Colo

Witnessed a bright red ball of light floating across the sky, much slower than a metor, that broke up into several parts and left an orange trail, but never burned out.

On Wednesday, Sept, 1, 1999 at aprox. 21:30 I observed a very strange object floating asross the sky. It was also observed by 4 friends of mine who were houseboating with me at Lake Trinity, which is aprox. 30 miles north of Redding, CA. My friends and I were sitting outside, on the lake when one of them noticed a very bright red ball of light moving very slowly across the sky. We quickly turned out all the lights to get a better look. The red ball of light apeared to be very low in the sky. It was moving in a West to East direction. At first, it looked a bit bigger than the largest star in the sky. As it traveled, it got somewhat larger. Trailing behind it was a smaller bright white light which looked like a star at first, but it was travelling at the exact same speed and exatly the same length behind the red ball of light throughout our sighting. After about 20 seconds the red ball began to split and turn a brilliant orange color. It left a trail of orange pieces that continued to follow the main body of light. There were between 4 and 6 of these "tails" following the main body of light. We watched this for aprox. another miniute to a minuite and a half. It never burned out, but rather disapeared behind the mountains to the East of out boat. It was moving very low and too slow to be a meteor. When we saw this, we had just finished cleaning up after diner and were not drinking at the time. None of us have ever seen anything like it. We are all college graduates in out late 20's. We are a close group of friends who spend our vacation together on our anual houseboating trip. I have a degree in Biological Science and I cannot explain what I saw that night.

Posted 1999-09-12

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