NUFORC Sighting 159862

Occurred: 2020-10-10 20:35 Local
Reported: 2020-10-11 14:46 Pacific
Duration: 20 seconds
No of observers: 2

Location: Howell, NJ, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object

Light green fireball-like object traveling downward.

One object appeared as a horizontally long oval (width only slightly bigger than height) with a light green glowing aura surrounding it. The object was going in a downward direction quickly and was fireball-like. One witness still saw the object behind trees on the horizon until it disappeared. The object appeared to be a few miles away in the southwest direction.

Between the time that the first witness saw the object and the disappearance was approximately twenty seconds. This sighting occurred while setting up a telescope (but not viewed through the telescope as it happened too quickly to attempt to view it and we did not want to look away) and no other unusual objects were noticed before or after this.

Both witnesses are not astronomy experts, but beginners with an interest in space. One witness observed meteors from the Persoid meteor showers in August. To compare to the meteors observed then, this object was much bigger, closer, slower, going in a downward direction (as opposed the meteors which went across the sky). Airplanes were the only other moving objects in the sky observed that night. However, this object also did not appear to be an airplane (the unidentified object was bigger, did not appear to have an airplane shape, and an airplane would not have been flying downward as fast).

Posted 2020-12-23