Date: July-1960 Fireball Sighting %cats=Fireball Reports
Time Of Sighting: 9:30 to 9:50 pm
Report: It was late summer, and I and a friend were standing outside the front of our house. looking west. we sighted a reddish and yellow fire ball in the south west sky. imagine a golf ball held out at arms length shooting across the sky at a very low altitude, just below the tops of some very tall fir trees. we could hear the rumble and Woosh Type Sound. it had a trail of smoke and fire. It was heading north and we never seen it hit, just disappeared in the north sky at the horizon.
Name: Galen N. Andrews
Location: Latitude = 45.6945, Longitude = -122.6307
Coordinates:
Constellations: The big dipper
Direction Of Travel: N
Line Of Sight: SW
Landmark: Vancouver, WA
Altitude: 15000 ft.
Angle of Decent In Degrees: 17
Color of Fireball: reddish and yellow with black spots
Brightness: darker then the moon
Duration: about 7 sec.
Extinguish: Yes
Retardation Point Azimuth: Disappeared North
Sonic Boom: No
Crackling Static Sound: Yes
Whizzing or Whooshing Sound: Yes
Impact: No
Have A Meteorite: No
Email: galen51@msn.com
Photo or Video:
July-1960 Fireball Sighting Reports
September 3, 2009 By 1 Comment
I am posting a comment about this sighting in 1960. It sounds exactly like the same one I saw as a young child. My brother and I were with my Mom at a local laundromat. My mother was inside, no one was around and we were in the very small town of Thousand Oaks (pop. ~10,000). My brother was younger than I and we walked outside the laundromat and were playing on the sidewalk in front looking around and checking out the store front next door. We looked up because of this bright light and there it was… like nothing I have seen before or since. It was a huge burning ball of fire. It looked like what was described above. About the size of a golf ball in the sky. We could see the flames and the trail it left was sparkling with burnt orange pieces it moved across the entire sky. It went from east to west and looked as if it would land in the Pacific Ocean near the Channel Islands off of Oxnard, CA. I vividly remember two things:
1. The color was bright white and orange and I could see flames and sparks coming off of it.
2. We could hear a swishing noise without a sonic boom.
My brother and I went in and alerted our Mother about what had just happened and she told us it was probably a falling star. There wasn’t a green like trail left afterwards like so many rockets and missiles witnessed from the Vandenberg AFB up north.
I do believe this to be a fireball and have never waivered in my vision of what I saw and that has been 50 years ago. It was quite something to see as 4 year old kid and I am sure I will never forget it. I would love to see another one in my lifetime because it was truly amazing.