Disbro58
A Disturbance in the Force
I have a few running problems with trying to research this event. First, I don't know the exact date. Second it was covered up. Let me explain.
I was born in 1958, and when I was around (guessing within 2-3 years) 10 years old, I was "sleeping over" at a friends house. We had a tent in the back yard, and this was in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. A very mountainous area of north central PA, and near the Susquehanna river valley. The house was situated on a pretty high hill, and the backyard was as high as the second story of the house. To the right of the roof of the house from where I sat, you could see the mountains beyond, river, valley, and town. It got almost dark, and my friend and I were hungry. He said he'd go in the house to get some "pop tarts". (sounds like a night out for a ten year old in the sixties, huh!) Anyway, he went in, and I sat there looking at the stars in front of the tent. My father was a mathematician at the State College there, so I had been introduced to physics, and astronomy at a very young age. I brought a Googol plex as my 1rst grade show and tell...
So I was sitting there when a growing dot in the sky (it looked like it was almost directly above me), got closer and closer, as if it were coming down right on top of me. Eventually, it turned into a fireball with red, blue, orange, yellow and white flames that came off it with a tail that was at least three or four times longer than the object it seemed to emanate from. It was as big as if you held a basketball in front of you, and tore across the sky, illuminating the entire landscape to be as bright as daylight. It went from dark to the point where I could see the distant mountains just like it was day. It made no sound, and though I thought it would hit the ground, and there would be an explosion, it just disappeared from my view behind me, and slowly the light faded until it was dark again. My friend came out of the house a few minutes later telling me that something had happened while he was in the kitchen that was "weird". He said that he was waiting for the toaster, and that he had glanced out the window over the sink, and it was night/dark. Then he glanced out again a few minutes later, and it was "day". He didn't think much of it until he looked again, and it was "night" again, and he wondered if he had been seeing things, because it was weird. Then I told him about the fireball.
The next day I told my father about my experience, and he (being a mathematician in the State College System) called around trying to find out what it was, and told me it must have been a meteor, or meteorite. He asked me the direction that it came from, and I told him it was from the south to the north, (from my bearings of my friends house, and how it was situated.) This was strange my father said, because typically the trajectory of a meteor or meteorite follows the rotation of the earth, and is seen going in an east/west, or west/east direction. He called around and could not find anything in any weather related institution. So he ended up calling the military, and asking about it. There was no mention that it happened, and nothing was officially said about it. That day the newspaper had a small article about how some people had seen the "falling star" or had called about lights in the sky.
I haven't been able to find anything on this, and it must have happened in the summer of "67, '68, or '69... I'm guessing '68.
Anyone have any ideas about how I might research this further? It would be great to just find some info that someone else saw it, too. From the descriptions of other fireballs I've read, this must have been a VERY big one. It's strange that it's no mentioned anywhere that I can find.
Thanks!
Disbro
I was born in 1958, and when I was around (guessing within 2-3 years) 10 years old, I was "sleeping over" at a friends house. We had a tent in the back yard, and this was in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. A very mountainous area of north central PA, and near the Susquehanna river valley. The house was situated on a pretty high hill, and the backyard was as high as the second story of the house. To the right of the roof of the house from where I sat, you could see the mountains beyond, river, valley, and town. It got almost dark, and my friend and I were hungry. He said he'd go in the house to get some "pop tarts". (sounds like a night out for a ten year old in the sixties, huh!) Anyway, he went in, and I sat there looking at the stars in front of the tent. My father was a mathematician at the State College there, so I had been introduced to physics, and astronomy at a very young age. I brought a Googol plex as my 1rst grade show and tell...
So I was sitting there when a growing dot in the sky (it looked like it was almost directly above me), got closer and closer, as if it were coming down right on top of me. Eventually, it turned into a fireball with red, blue, orange, yellow and white flames that came off it with a tail that was at least three or four times longer than the object it seemed to emanate from. It was as big as if you held a basketball in front of you, and tore across the sky, illuminating the entire landscape to be as bright as daylight. It went from dark to the point where I could see the distant mountains just like it was day. It made no sound, and though I thought it would hit the ground, and there would be an explosion, it just disappeared from my view behind me, and slowly the light faded until it was dark again. My friend came out of the house a few minutes later telling me that something had happened while he was in the kitchen that was "weird". He said that he was waiting for the toaster, and that he had glanced out the window over the sink, and it was night/dark. Then he glanced out again a few minutes later, and it was "day". He didn't think much of it until he looked again, and it was "night" again, and he wondered if he had been seeing things, because it was weird. Then I told him about the fireball.
The next day I told my father about my experience, and he (being a mathematician in the State College System) called around trying to find out what it was, and told me it must have been a meteor, or meteorite. He asked me the direction that it came from, and I told him it was from the south to the north, (from my bearings of my friends house, and how it was situated.) This was strange my father said, because typically the trajectory of a meteor or meteorite follows the rotation of the earth, and is seen going in an east/west, or west/east direction. He called around and could not find anything in any weather related institution. So he ended up calling the military, and asking about it. There was no mention that it happened, and nothing was officially said about it. That day the newspaper had a small article about how some people had seen the "falling star" or had called about lights in the sky.
I haven't been able to find anything on this, and it must have happened in the summer of "67, '68, or '69... I'm guessing '68.
Anyone have any ideas about how I might research this further? It would be great to just find some info that someone else saw it, too. From the descriptions of other fireballs I've read, this must have been a VERY big one. It's strange that it's no mentioned anywhere that I can find.
Thanks!
Disbro
