Fireball over Cedar Falls, IA
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
While smoking a cigarette on my porch, I saw a "star" that was brighter than any other stars on the northern side; however it wasn't white like the other stars, it was reddish/orange, and spherical. It moved downward vertically (using a a tree as a reference). It gained more altitude in a smooth and steady motion, then descended again directly downward. I went inside to get another cigarette trying to look at it more, which took less than 5 min. When I went back to the porch, it was gone.
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #125255). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2016-01-10 → 2016-01-27
From the same sky
Related entries
July 14, 2016 · 11:15 PM · UNKNOWN
Cedar Falls, IA
What appeared to be the brightness star on the northern side of my location started to shift south at a steady speed. It was a solid white color, no more distinctions could be made. The further it moved, the less light it gave off. Within 250 yards of its starting point, it couldn't be seen. 23 minutes later, it was seen again going north, 75 yards West of where it was seen last. It shone yellow very brightly as a flash, then disappeared. Conventional and iridium satellites have been ruled out.
November 19, 2015 · 9:02 PM · TRIANGLE
Cedar Falls, IA
. Approx 9:00 PM or 21 hundred hours. Clear evening, no clouds, temps in the mid 30's. Went out to have a smoke and noticed a movement to my right peripheral side vision in the star filled sky. Saw what appeared as a fuzzy outline of a V-formation, or triangle craft. Hard to discern it as it appeared slightly lighter then the dark background sky, fuzzy edges with a translucent appearance. Very difficult to see unless looking right at it. No lights, no sound and its glide path was to the East SouthEast. Watched it for 7-8 seconds before it faded from view. Speed looked like around 250 MPH at say 3000 feet altitude, just a guess thou as I could not tell its size. When first overhead it would have been the size of my hand at arm's length. Object did not reflect from the moon that evening and for a lack of better words, appeared to cloak itself somehow to the background. Very strange. I had my cell phone out however there was not enough time to capture it as ! I was wondering what it was in the first place. I am knowledgeable in earth sciences, all known aircraft and consider myself an amateur astronomer. It matched the dark sky so much, I doubt a photo would have shown it unless during the day. Intend to build an Infrared video array now, I want some substantial answers..................
September 29, 2015 · 9:00 PM · OTHER
Cedar Falls, IA
We watched it until we could no longer see it in our air space.
July 29, 2015 · 2:30 AM · FORMATION
Cedar Falls, IA
We noticed a blinking light very low in the sky to the west of us. It would dip above and below the tree line and occasionally blink red, as well as disappear and reappear on multiple occasions. The light did not move with the skyline. We continued to watch this light until at approximately 2:30am a group of lights in the formation of what looked like a question mark appeared in the east. It was very bright at first, blinking orange, green, and multiple variations of blue. There were five definitive lights, and a few other less bright lights that would fade in and out. The question mark would frequently look as if someone were drawing a line through the question mark. A few of the lights would move so quickly they would look like they were making a shape. For instance the top left light kept making an oval shape. The lights were not a definite shape. They appeared to us as circles at first, and the next minute would look like small triangles. We continued to watch this formation for about an hour, over the course of this hour the formation dimmed, and rose in the sky. The formation did not follow the skyline either. We watched it pass a star next to it as it was rising. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
October 9, 2014 · 9:00 PM · TRIANGLE
Cedar Falls, IA
I heard on the news tonight, that the International Space Station could be seen at 7:30 for 6 minutes. I began to look at the sky during this time but did not see anything. It was a bit cloudy and I thought perhaps I would indeed have to wait for another time. I have never witnessed seeing it, and I continued to look at the sky in hopes I did not miss it, etc. Around 9:00 p.m. my friend and I were walking to her car from our homes. I again looked up, and there in the sky we both saw a triangle shaped flying object with flashing red lights that alternated with turquoise blue when it slowed down or changed speed. At one point it for a moment hovered a bit. We realized then, it was perhaps a UFO. The pattern it flew was like it was “mapping” the sky. I mean, it did not fly straight and then away. It would come back from the North and then South again. My friend ran into her home. I continued to watch it from my window. Perhaps 30 minutes or so later, after it disappeared, a large airplane or craft of our own flew close to where we had seen the other object.
April 25, 2014 · 10:20 PM · LIGHT
Cedar Falls, IA
Amber light.