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| Credit Image: poleshift.ning.com |
Another fireball
'burns brightly with a tail of fire' as it streaks across Alabama sky (video)
As thousands looked down on the football field in
Tuscaloosa, many others were reportedly looking up at a possible meteor
streaking through the sky over the stadium Saturday evening.
An eyewitness in Bryant-Denny Stadium reported that she was
surrounded by screaming Alabama fans when "the fireball appeared in the
sky above the upper deck and burned brightly with a tail of fire and
disappeared within about 5 seconds."
For less than 10 seconds, a bright flash of light was
visible over north and central Alabama, according to more than 200 eyewitness
sightings posted on the American Meteor Society's website.
The AMS has mapped the
reports it received from Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North
Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
Accounts from Alabama eyewitnesses – from Montgomery,
Auburn, Cullman, Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Decatur, Huntsville and elsewhere –
range from the scientific to the spiritual.
An account from Montgomery reads: "Twilight
observation. This was a very bright, sustained sighting that lasted approx. 7
seconds. Very slight downward arcing path. Much brighter and larger than any of
the Perseids."
"It was beautiful. Life affirming. I feel very
small," a Birmingham witness said.
A Cullman observer summed up the sighting, saying it was
"the best meteor that I (have) ever seen in 50 years of observing
meteors."
