Remarks | It was not yet full dark and I was observing the near conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn when I saw a bright light "falling" straight down in the sky directly to the west (my property is oriented North-South so I have a good, if approximate, sense of the direction of my observations). It took me a second or two to determine that I was, indeed, seeing a fireball and not an aircraft or a singular fire work. I asked my wife to note the time and her FitBit gave us 6:15 PM Central Standard time. That should be accurate to within a rounding error (one minute?). I have observed a much larger fireball in the recent past and knew to listen for a sound and to look for fragmentation, neither of which did I note. I could not listen for a very distant sound (only could stay for 2 minutes or so) as I had urgent business in the house. The duration was 3 to 4 seconds. The fireball descended straight down and was masked by trees at a elevation of perhaps 20-25 degrees from my horizon. |
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