# Something HUGE just burned up over my house **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 11, 2009, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430 "2009-10-11T20:47:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430/1 "2009-10-11T20:47:14Z")
Holy crap. I was just out for a smoke in the back yard - at about 21.15 UCT - and as I gazed idly about me, I saw out of the corner of my eye a shooting star going “up” the sky (which I know is irrelevant - but normally when I see them, they appear to go “down” the inverted bowl of the heavens). This made me look up into the sky with more scrutiny than normal. About a minute later, I saw the most amazingly huge shooting star I’ve ever seen. Venus is currently on the horizon, and this thing appeared to be about three or four times wider than Venus. It was also slow as hell. Went over the middle of the sky, and took about 30 seconds from first sight until it winked out. Not only that, but it was trailed by a huge swathe of sparks. In the UK, the shooting stars I’ve seen before are mainly short scratches of white on the sky, and short-lived too. I’ve seen shooting stars from the Himalayas in Nepal and they were much longer - they went across half of the sky, but were still thin white lines. This thing, though, was _wide_. Does anyone with more knowledge than I care to enlighten me on what I just saw? ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430/2 "2009-10-11T21:00:40Z")
No knowledge here, but where are you, just out of curiosity? (Guests’ location doesn’t show, darn it.) Apparently, I missed a hella fireball here a few weeks ago. I am _never_ outside with a smoke at the right time. ☹ I will keep looking up, though. Yours sounds astounding. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430/3 "2009-10-11T21:02:17Z")
He’s in Oxford. If you click on a guests User Profile it shows their location. Sounds like a fantastic sight! ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430/4 "2009-10-11T21:32:56Z")
Yeah sorry, I’m in Oxford, UK. I’ve looked on YouTube and the thing it most closely resembled is at 2:41 on [this video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLM1pfgv9IE), which, from the footbally players at the end of the segment, appears to be the beginning of the sighting of the Peekskill bolide - which went on to be much more spectacular than what I saw. But if you were to isolate one of the Peekskill fragments in other videos of the event, that’s pretty much what I just saw. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430/5 "2009-10-11T21:35:45Z")
If you find an infant boy in the crater, please try to raise him with wholesome small town values. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430/6 "2009-10-11T21:48:18Z")
My friends saw this over Dublin. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430/7 "2009-10-11T21:58:46Z")
Either that or give him a complex involving bats. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430/8 "2009-10-11T22:25:48Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > My friends saw this over Dublin. What - tonight?! If so, what part of the sky - was it to the east? ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430/9 "2009-10-11T23:01:52Z")
He said he saw a fireball at around 8.30pm, not sure what part of the sky, was in north Dublin city. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430/10 "2009-10-11T23:42:06Z")
I saw something kinda like that back in July 2007: my wife and I were walking along Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina and saw the most spectacular shooting star I’ve ever seen. [I posted about it here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=432596&highlight=wrightsville). ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430/11 "2009-10-11T23:48:34Z")
Frozen turkey. Big pot. Boiling oil. Sparklers shoved up it. Rednecks. Bad combination. Thats my guess. ---
**Author:** ![fubbleskag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fubbleskag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fubbleskag)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430/12 "2009-10-11T23:51:09Z")
batman’s not from another planet! ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430/13 "2009-10-11T23:55:16Z")
Damn. I missed. ---
**Author:** ![Wargamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Wargamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wargamer)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430/14 "2009-10-12T00:36:04Z")
I saw a fireball back in the mid-80’s one night as I was driving back to college from home. They really are an awesome looking sight, and I saw news reportsof its sighting from all over the southeast US. ---
**Author:** ![picker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/picker/32/13969_2.png) [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430/15 "2009-10-12T01:33:59Z")
> [@fubbleskag](#): > > batman’s not from another planet! Not if he’s prepared. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430/16 "2009-10-12T02:00:55Z")
I saw one from a Big Boy’s in the mid-90s. It was greenish and lit the cloud cover up, until it broke through. I heard it landed somewhere in one of the Great Lakes… it’d have to have been either Lake Saint Clair, or Lake Erie. We were too far south for Huron, I suppose. It was really cool. The group I was with tried to drive around to look for it, but you just don’t realize how far those things are away from you. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430/17 "2009-10-12T02:13:48Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > I saw one from a Big Boy’s in the mid-90s. Wow, that’s really unusual. Most meteors come from outer space. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430/18 "2009-10-12T02:44:16Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > Wow, that’s really unusual. Most meteors come from outer space. 😃 The ones from Bob’s Big Boy are called ‘meatiers’. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430/19 "2009-10-12T02:47:01Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > If you find an infant boy in the crater, please try to raise him with wholesome small town values. Unless he has a tail, then you should drop him on his head and train him in martial arts in the woods. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430/20 "2009-10-12T02:59:21Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Unless he has a tail, then you should drop him on his head and train him in martial arts in the woods. Ooh, excellent call. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-huge-just-burned-up-over-my-house/513430.md?page=2)