Frank,

I too saw the fireball. It was shortly after 10 PM, I was out walking the dog while simultaneously trying to locate the Comet Holmes. While looking upward I saw the big yellow ball starting in a south east direction falling towards the south. It was much bigger than the average shooting star and it fell past the horizon. I'm in West Chester, PA, which may be the reason for differences. In addition, the entire event lasted no longer than 5 seconds. I have been searching the web ever since to see if anyone else saw it, so I appreciate this blog. I also came across another website where about 10 other people witnessed the same event. If the url makes it through this format, the site is: http://www.amsmeteors.org/fireball/fireball_log2007.html If not it is The American Meteor Society, Fireballs: 2007

FR: The link seems to work. Thanks. Looks like as many as seven other people, in Md., Va., N.Y. and Pa., also saw the meteor.

At 10:10 on Thursday 11/8/07 I was
heading east on Goucher Blvd in Towson. my girlfriend and I witnessed the fireball in question. It was low in the horizon and had a bluish green color as seen in the videos on your link. It was moving from north to south.

I was driving on Rt. 22 in Churchville Thursday evening when I saw this tremendous meteor. At first I thought it was fireworks someone shot up, but then realized it must be a meteor. From my perspective it looked like it was moving toward the south. The colours I saw were a bright white and green.

Several friends and I saw this meteor sometime after 10pm in Philadelphia, PA. It was low on the horizon and appeared to head toward the south. It was a bright florescent green, and lasted several seconds. It was spectacular.

Saw this early Saturday morning (11/10/07) about 1230am from San Jose California. we were looking at the sky the whole night observing comet holmes and other things so we got a good look at it. It was bright white with a trailing blue and red tail. we saw it north of our position. it appeared and headed straight down over the hills and trees. after it passed from view the horizon lit up bright white and faded. amazing!

Received this email today from Jeff Ceccola:

Hey Frank,

I posted the first comment regarding the meteor (Jeff Ceccola, West Chester,
PA.) Obviously, this was a pretty substantial event as so many people
between your blog and the website I directed you to witnessed it. I wonder
how many people saw it that aren't as internet savvy. My question is: Is
there anyway we can determine if this was a fireball, or just a big meteor?
Do you have any resources that might had some camera's in the sky? Perhaps
someone in the FAA.. Although, I'm pretty confident this wasn't a bolide,
between the size, the trajectory, and the speed, my body told me to embrace
for impact. Retrospectively, my mind knew better. What I witnessed, was
not much different then the video you pointed us too. I will look forward
to your response and/or follow up postings. - Thanks, Jeff Ceccola

Jeff: There is no real difference between a big meteor and a fireball, except brightness. They're all the same beast. The International Meteor Organization sets a brightness threshhold of magnitude minus 4 for fireballs. It's an arbitrary limit, somewhere roughly akin to Venus, although Venus can be both brighter and dimmer than that. As brightness increases, the (negative) magnitude integers get bigger, so the next brightest level is a magnitude of - (minus) 5. The IMO says that at -5 a fireball illuminates the surrounding landscape and throws shadows.

If you do a search on YouTube for fireballs, you can find some videos that include security camera shots that, while they miss the fireball itself, record the illumination of the scenery. Looks like lightning flashes. Here's a link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLM1pfgv9IE

So, you may be able to judge for yourself, based on what you witnessed, whether this meteor qualified as a fireball. It may have.

As for bolides, they, by definition, end with a terminal burst, or explosion. Nobody in the reports I've read reported that. So I think we can set that definition aside.

To add to the discussion, I too, saw a huge fireball (or meteorite) a few years ago. It lite up the night sky like noon on the 4th of July. I was driving my car on a dark, untravelled road and WOW!!

There's a website:
http://fireballs-meteorites.blogspot.com/

where you can read more about this subject, which is becoming more frequent ... and more scary.

Also, there are a number of articles on: http://www.sott.net

this is a website, where they seem to be keeping track of the goings on throughout the world of these reported sightings.

It is a fascinating subject and one that keeps me looking up.

Whoa it seems everybody are seeing these fireballs and meteorites these days. From what i've read so far sightings sure seem to be increasing over the past few years. Whats going on??

Thanks for the heads up on those links. Man it's like an epidemic or something...

Calm down everybody. These things occur all the time. Always have. But now we have the technology to record them, and share the information on the Internet.

i witnessed a very large meteor over the skies of milford delaware on the night of 11/08/07 at 10:10 pm - when i saw it, it seemed to be travelling in a very very low horizontal path north/northeast - there was no sound - the "ball" was illuminating brilliant white with a very long trailing firetail from which i could actually see heat ripples - it was breathtakingly beautiful - my daughter also witnessed what we believe was the same object [north/northeast path] as she travelled southbound from dover to milford but when she saw it, its shape was that of a "comma" [,] - she saw it "explode", heard a loud "popping sound" and then smelled a pungent burning odor - she was 7 miles from the location where i had seen it - a neighbor of hers said that his daughter who was travelling in the bahamas had also witnessed a large "fireball" that same night - i reported this sighting to a local university but they had no interest - i also reported it to robert haag [meteorite man] who was kind enough to respond to my note - i would love to hunt down whatever remains fell to the ground over this rural area - anyone interested?

I happened to find this site by accident & am thrilled that someone else had seen this event. On Thursday evening -11/08/2007, I was driving east on I 70 @ 10-10:15PM, (I had left Hagerstown Outlet - Maryland @9:30PM) & on the horizon saw the largest "ball of fire" that I have ever seen. It was extremely low to the horizon and was white, yellow & blue in color. It seemed to be coming from a northeasterly direction & heading south as it was falling from the sky. The event itself, may have lasted all of 10 seconds. I truly expected to hear a loud "boom" with it hitting the earth, but I would imagine that it may have evaporated before it hit the ground. It was truly a memorable event.

Saw a remarkable blue-green meteor at about 3 AM on December 15 while driving north from the Baltimore area toward York, PA. It was viewable through our driver's side window so it appeared to be headed in approximately the same direction as we were, although I suppose this is a pretty subjective notion. Also several smaller meteors were seen within about an hour.

My husband and I were driving last night (1/7/08) through Perry Hall,MD when we spotted a blue-green fall fireball speeding to some site not far from us.It appeared to be headed to Carney area.

Tuesday, Jan. 8th at around 2 O'clock in the morning, I spotted a large meteor above Upper Chesapeake Hospital in Bel Air, MD. It was about the size of a volleyball and I know it had to have hit somewhere close. Does anyone have any information about that?? Or if others were seen??

I saw, (I think) a comet on
February 28, 2008. It was green, and looked like a firework or a flare...It was traveling from east to west in Northern Baltimore County just 10 miles south of the PA line on Interstate 83 at about 8:50 p.m. Did anyone else see it. My daughter saw the same thing in Hunt Valley..

Hi all, I saw this spectacular sight on Thursday night Feb. 28th around 10:30. I live in Downingtown pa and was traveling towards Phoenixville on route 10. I couldn't believe my eyes, it was so amazing. The only thing though is I have no idea where it hit, or even if it hit at all. Does anyone know this please let me know?

We are so happy so many other people saw this besides us. We were in our back yard looking at the stars and this ball of fire came from nowhere and was gone even faster. It was amazing to me and my ten year old Daughter. St. Marys, West Virginia

Hi,

I saw something this morning, October 21, 2008, in the sky that I thought was strange, and was wondering if anyone else has reported seeing the same thing. At 5 a.m. on Tuesday morning, I saw a fireball in the sky over Elkridge, MD. I was looking down at first, as I was running, and the sky lit up like it would in a lightening storm, that’s when I looked up and saw and object the size of a softball (scaled compared to the size of the stars behind it) far up in the distant sky explode in a yellow/white bright light, then shoot upwards, leaving a foot long trail of white behind it before disappearing into a thin trail of dust.

Just curious if anything has been reported on this?

I was laying in bed at about 10:30pm on thursday night when both my husband and I saw a bright light in the sky. We didn't see anything but the sky light up (our window faces south) but it was so bright that I first thought there was a thunderstorm in the area...but when I realized that there weren't any storms in the area I did not know what actually happened until I found this thread!

FR: May well have been a bright Taurid fireball. The Taurid shower is peaking now until the 12th.