Fireball over Eagan, MN

The report, as filed

Time: dusk in autumn, mid-September, between 8 and 8:30 PM. Location: Eagan, MN (suburb of Minneapolis/St. Paul) Weather conditions: Cool, around 65 degress F, slight breeze, cloudless sky. Stars were beginning to appear in the eastern part of the sky. Description of sighting: Orange in center, darker and hazier near edges, steadily bright but with edges slightly flickering. Would compare the appearance to a candle's flame in the darkness. The light was much, much larger than the lights on the side of a plane as seen from the ground. I am a woman in my late 20s. I regularly walk my dog four times a day, and have lived in this area just over a year, so I am familar with the area and the changes the neighborhood undergoes at various times of day. A large airport is situated in a nearby city, and I have seen many airplanes, but the object in sky did not resemble an airplane. I saw it as I walked around the back of my building, which is located next to a small park. As soon as I saw it, I watched it as I walked for about a minute, and because it was so strange, I ascended a hill in the park to get above the treeline and watched it slowly move southwest for an additional two minutes. My dog was perfectly calm and didn't seem to notice anything different. I had no physical reaction to its presence, other than being a bit surprised, confused, and a little unnerved. At that moment, I could see no planes in the sky and I heard no sounds other than those of nature and the cars driving by. No other people were by me on the path. I was unable to ascertain the actual shape of the craft, seeing only the orange light as a flat circle, so I cannot say if it was spherical or otherwise. I squinted and thought I saw a dim triangular outline around the orange, but when I looked again, it didn't seem to be there. It seemed to be moving slowly directly away from me, only growing slightly smaller in the sky. At this point, I saw the lights of a plane heading toward the airport, and heard the usual airplane noise. I started down the hill toward home, and had my back to the object for one minute. I turned to see if my lower vantage point blocked it from view, and the craft was now moving in the opposite direction, toward the northeast, and it seemed be moving more quickly. At that point I reached my home and headed inside, so I cannot say what happened after that. I have looked up pictures of lanterns and hot air balloons at night, and it looks like it could have been either of those. I doubt hot-air balloons would fly so closely to the airport, though. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #113733). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.