American Meteor Society
More than 280 reports from 12 states
The AMS received more than 280 reports so far about a fireball event that occurred over Connecticut and New York on November 8th, 2020 around 19:22 EST (November 9th, 02:22 Universal Time). The AMS #2020-5441 event was mainly seen from the Connecticut and New York but we also received reports from Massachusetts, Delaware, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Québec.
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Trajectory & Video
While this event is still under investigation, the preliminary trajectory computed based on all the reports submitted to the AMS so far shows that the fireball was travelling from East to West and ended its visible flight somewhere sought of Poughkeepsie, NY.
The event has been by AllSky6 camera operator Peter Deterline from Douglassville, PA:
The event has been also caught on a dashcam and share on twitter by @LakewoodScoop:
Fireball?
Several thousand meteors of fireball magnitude occur in the Earth’s atmosphere each day. The vast majority of these, however, occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions, and a good many are masked by daylight. Those that occur at night also stand little chance of being detected due to the relatively low numbers of persons out to notice them.
Additionally, the brighter the fireball, the more rare is the event. As a general thumb rule, there are only about 1/3 as many fireballs present for each successively brighter magnitude class, following an exponential decrease. Experienced observers can expect to see only about 1 fireball of magnitude -6 or better for every 200 hours of meteor observing, while a fireball of magnitude -4 can be expected about once every 20 hours or so.
I saw it in Middletown CT. Thanks for confirmation.
I saw it from Bucks county in PA
I was driving on I-95 northbound near Lorton, VA (just south of Washington, DC) and saw this as well.
Saw fire ball Metroid asteroid whatever going south /west and then explode in sky.
I live inHamilton OnT Canada
I saw in on northbound interstate 95 in Maryland. I was surprised at how long it burned. But mostly right before it burned out, pieces came off that actually burned green in color. Clearly green no mistake.
I saw it (with two other witnesses) from Windham County in southern Vermont. It was green!
A refreshing experience! Space without the hype. But you folks spice it up with way cool info most of us either forgot or never knew in the first place. Will join when spouse ” gets Christmas presents for gran kids ” any way thank you.
Nov-8, Around 7 pm, my wife asked me if I had heard that sound that she had heard, like the sound of a trumpet in the sky. For my part, I was in the salon where the TV was loud. I didn’t hear anything.
I’m living in Saskatoon, Canada
My wife and I were camping in Clarence Fahnestock State Park in Carmel NY just south of Poughkeepsie, NY. We went for a walk just after 7pm. We witnessed this fireball that appeared directly above our heads. It was majestic. In complete darkness to see this fireball of teal with a yellow tail lighting the sky above our heads was magical.
I was able to see this and it seemed to be right above me, I was in Greenwich New York.
I saw a fire ball 10/8/20 across the sky from saugerties ny village.
I saw a shooting star on Nov. 8th at 7:19 pm. I was in the backyard in Newburgh , N Y . In front I saw a mix of greenish blue the 2nd half of it was half orange yellowy at the end. It appeared the northeast one third higher than the middle of the sky. Flying in a slight horizontal arc. Size relatated to by my eyesight was around one half of a bb . It fell into three parts and was all gone in a little less than a second or barely over one second and a half maybe.
Could this be seen in Tennessee? I was driving to work at the time this was reported and seen what I thought was the brightest, lowest shooting star I had ever seen. It was not nearly as bright or as long as the videos above, but very similar.
Cassandra and All,
No, Tennessee is too far to be related to this fireball. We do not have any fireball reports from Tennessee on the evening of November 8th, but on the following evening we have a couple that occurred near this time of night.
Steven of Israeli News Live mentioned a meteror he was in Tennessee.
It happened recently…probably the sameone you noticed.
I hope you find his video.
He is a truthful person.
He will give instructions to watch continuation on another platform.
My best regards
Patty
I think I saw this after work around 3:30 am in South Windsor Connecticut. It was big, bright and beautiful.
1922 EST would be 0022 UTC, which is the time recorded by AMS https://fireballs.amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/event/2020/6425
Last night about 10:20pm at Braddock Heights Greece, NY I saw a fireball with a huge tail to the west. It was going south to north toward Lake Ontario. Amazing! Perfect night.
I saw it just before 7 pm in Eau Claire Wisconsin, I thought I was looking at shooting star, however was kinda big for that, maybe a plane crashing? I decided on the shooting star and made a wish lol, thanks for the confirmation.
I was sitting in my hot tub 10|10|20 around 7:20 pm.,perfectly positioned watching the evening sky. A fantastic meteorite streamed low across the sky. going east to west. A beautiful fireball with a blueish tail. seemingly for a full two seconds. Thank You Lord
I saw this while driving home from southern NJ, same day I proposed to my fiancée! Thanks for the confirmation.
my husband and i saw this over Forestburgh, NY around 7:30pm. Never seen anything like it but the night sky was crystal clear that night. it had a blue aura and huge tail.
I have never personal saw one live. But I bet it’s pretty amazing. That must have been a big one to cross so long without burning up
Nov. 9 around 10:00 pm, driving from work saw about 2- seconds, falling diagonally , just across the treetop..
about 3-4 ft circle, falling downward to my left, the right side of the ball was bright like the moon, and lite up the whole thing, this is how I could see the shape. The left side was dark with flickering orange. It was so amazing, especially that close up.
South of Greensboro, NC
I seen this in Ripley wv on Nov 9 around 2:30, it was as bright and almost as big as the moon. It was extremely bright and looked like a half moon flying across the sky and at one point put off a greenish blue hue. It was an amazing thing to see and freaked me out for a few seconds.
That’s funny, I saw one driving north on route 9 around 7:37 pm in Mamora, NJ on November 8th, 2022. It was a large fireball and heading east to west at about a 10 degree tilt from vertical. it was almost directly north. It was spectacular but the duration wasn’t so long. It looked very similar to the one in the second video.