Night Sky info, please.

What websites are there to look up stuff re-entering the atmosphere over where one lives? I think I saw a really bright fireball pass over us last night- because if it was a car, we'd have had it poking into the living room after driving through our car. Blinds lit up. We keep the bottom end up a few inches so the cat doesn't destroy them when he's looking at who knows what. Since I had that couple inches, I could see that this wasn't on the road.
And to the usual bunch of hyenas:
Don't worry. My drug use hasn't impacted my schizophrenic memory.

a reply to: wylekat

Could you please elaborate on what exactly was lifted a couple inches off the ground presumably? As for lights shining into your living room windows, it could have been a cop doing a drive by on the area. Or possibly a helicopter looking for someone. Did you hear anything?

a reply to: Allaroundyou

Our blinds are up a couple inches, to keep the cat from wrecking them. I could not see anything resembling a headlight or searchlight, as the blinds have been wrecked enough you can see the light source out of them. Had a UPS truck show up after dark- could see the guy had a high powered flashlight, and was looking for an address.

This didn't go down the road, which runs east/ west. This went north/ south.

Also, no sound. If it was a plane or helicopter, at that altitude, I'd have heard it.

a reply to: wylekat

The International Meteor Society has resources/database of reported fireballs and meteors.

With Heavens-above.com, you can input your specific location, and find out when the ISS, Hubble Space Telescope, various satellites, irridium flares and other objects are going to visible from your location.

I'm old, 52, but.....

Seems like I was told in high school that there were literally hundreds of thousands of pieces of man made debris orbiting the earth. Everything from large pieces like the moon mission 2nd or 3rd stage rockets, military or communication satellites, all the way down to small chips of heat proofing shield from various space craft.

It stands to reason some would enter the atmosphere, fall to earth, and catch fire on the way down.
I've seen this happen a lot, as I grew up in a rural farm setting, no streetlights, etc. At least that's what the guy at Grissom AFB told me on the phone when my grandfather encouraged me to call them in the mid/late 1970's.

a reply to: argentus

I submitted my 'observation' (such as it was). Be interesting to find out what it was. i doubt it was a satellite or the ISS, otherwise, Wal mart behind us would be a smoking crater.

originally posted by: Brywilson2
I'm old, 52, but.....

Seems like I was told in high school that there were literally hundreds of thousands of pieces of man made debris orbiting the earth. Everything from large pieces like the moon mission 2nd or 3rd stage rockets, military or communication satellites, all the way down to small chips of heat proofing shield from various space craft.

It stands to reason some would enter the atmosphere, fall to earth, and catch fire on the way down.
I've seen this happen a lot, as I grew up in a rural farm setting, no streetlights, etc. At least that's what the guy at Grissom AFB told me on the phone when my grandfather encouraged me to call them in the mid/late 1970's.

It is very rare for any space junk to hit the Earth burning. The exceptions would be some embedded magnesium parts and part of fuel cells. For items smaller than a lets say a van, there will be no warning from any facility that monitors space junk, it will happen too fast. Big pieces will start to heat up in the upper atmosphere and perhaps satellites and Earth based monitoring stations may get an infrared signature, then with speed and weight estimates, they might be able to pinpoint where it will hit with the resolution of a continent or so.