fireball in the sky

I just remembered this so here goes.

First, I don't believe this is related to the florida fireball.

Second, If a MODERATOR thinks it is, then I will happily end this thread.

Now, my father and I are avid star gazers and one night we saw some sort of fire ball. the odd thing was that it wasn't moving. then, it started to grow in size and to narrow out like a comet. then, about ten minutes later, it started to disappear from where it started.

Any thoughts on this? My father thinks that it was a fuel dump from a shuttle, but this happened before NASA was launching shuttles again.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Any explanations?

To be honest I saw a fireball in the sky last month. It was glowing bright, like a flame.. but just hanging there. Really perplexed me. I ran back inside to get binoculars, but by the time I got back out, it was gone. I kinda had forgotten about it until this post.

What do you think it was?

Yesterday night at 11:40pm I got a shock of a lifetime. I was on route to my house from work via road 192 in Kissimmee Florida. I saw a fireball that seemed to be coming my way. It lit up the night ski and it was very impresive. I got excited and called my brother and my girlfriend, told them the story, then I got home. I checked to see if the news people might have seen it too, so I changed the channel and found out that it was a NASA rocket.

Damn, I felt so cheated.

Do you remember the color of this thing you saw?
Was it pinkish, by chance?
Was it more of a diffuse glow?
Or was it a brigh one?

It was basically a fire ball. you know,... fire.

ok, Fire..
do you remember the date?

no. It was maybe a month to 2 months ago. I mean, I figured that the space station was dumping fuel or something.

Ill ask my dad when it was. He should remember.

interesting, my memory is really crappy. here is the reply my dad sent to my inquirery.

Last summer. We were floating in the pool when I saw it. Got the telescope out, it looked like an expanding triangle with a bright spot at the point. It got quite big over about 10 -15 mintues, and was very bright initially. Then it spread and faded afterwards. The explanation that was put up on astronomy web sites almost immediately was that it was a V1 rocket seperation fuel dump.

Here's a 'fireball'

antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov...

I think that is what I saw. lol

Originally posted by The Director
Here's a 'fireball'

antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov...

What I saw wasn't a streak. It was a ball. Like an orb. And it was definitely fire.

Well if it was stationary that rules out small asteroids and comets coming down. So then if you go through things it can't be you could get somewhere.
Aurora borealis: well it depends where you are, and unless you are in either alaska or somewhere like that we can rule it out. They also move.
The Aurora/secret aircraft: well again, it was stationary, but it sounds almost like a large luminous exhaust being thrown out of something, then dispersing backward. But then, why would it remain stationary?
Something up there exploding: this can't really be it as it lasts for ten minutes but it could do something similar.

These are just ideas I could think of but they were the only things that I could think would do this.

good thoughts apex. I also thought of the aroura aircraft but as you said, it was staitionary. Hmm. this is very confusing.

Originally posted by ketoes13
I also thought of the aroura aircraft but as you said, it was staitionary. Hmm. this is very confusing

Unless of course, it was some kind of craft with a technology that allows it to hover with no exhaust, and it was testing its engine, which produced the fireball.

I doubt it. I mean, there harrier is the only jet that I could find that has hovering capability.

Originally posted by ketoes13
I doubt it. I mean, there harrier is the only jet that I could find that has hovering capability.

Doesn't the JSF has it as well? Also the harrier has been around for 30+ years, so i should think America or whoever has a jet that can hover by now.