Increasing

Some interesting conversation from another group.

Offered by Clipper.

Reports tonight of a fireball have been broadcast in a special bulletin as dozens of calls are entertained at local news desks. Tonight (Sunday, December 6, 1998) sometime after 21:00 Eastern time reports of a glowing fireball that streaked across the Georgia sky were reported to local Atlanta news agencies. FOX network interrupted a broadcast of The X Files (go figure) to report the anomalous fireball.

The fireball, quoted as being like "a meteor, only 100 times brighter than any I have ever seen" by an eyewitness, was reported to be a flaming ball with a fiery tail, accompanied by an audible noise as it traversed the night sky. Reports of the fireball have come in from Jonesboro GA to Rome GA as the fireball traveled east to west. Local news broadcasters seek insight from employees of Fernbank Science Center in order to explain the source of the streaking light.

Did this fireball happen Sunday night? I saw one Sunday night in the eastern sky. I thought the thing was really close to the ground. It was huge. I live in Indiana and was heading south. I've been seeing a lot of these lately. I saw one for the first time over the summer. Then one a couple of weeks ago and then the one Sunday night. I have never seen these before. Bigger and brighter than any shooting star I have seen before. The one Sunday night was really neat to see, it seemed to be going straight down at a slight angle and that part scared me a little, especially after all these asteroid/comet impact stuff going around.

Yes, around 17:00 eastern time (or there about, I think). It was briefly covered on television and radio but I could not find anything in the paper regarding this. I suppose the Journal thought it a non-event.

A friend who saw it described it as about the size of the moon and looking like a spacecraft. It upset her so much that she had to locate the moon in the sky to make sure it was still up there.