"newshound" wrote in message
...

I've been interested in astronomy since I could read. When I was perhaps
ten, having seen two comets and Sputniks 2 and 3
..
Oh yes... head up and eyes squinty watching the faint dot over Birmingham.
8)
..
but before I had ever
positively seen a meteor, I saw a bright and irregular object comparable
in angular size to the moon moving over several degrees in a second or
two. Knowing for sure that there was nothing celestial which could fit
that description, I thought for decades I must have imagined it. Very much
later I read that fireballs can be bright enough to overload the retina
and appear to be very much larger than their true angular dimension.
Sounds like your experience was something similar.
I wouldn't be at all surprised being as I am in my mid sixties and have lost
a bit of night vision. It certainly wasn't as large as the moon, though.
Just 'slightly larger' than I thought a meteor should be?
..
I deeply regret to inform you that the only other thing I have seen 'up
there' was a bright green cigar during daylight hours and experience has
taught me not to boast about that baby. I put it down to a ball of light and
certainly nothing ET about it.
..
Ah well. I dare say I can go for the rest of my life without seeing anything
else untowards.
Meanwhile, happy star-watching to the rest of you. I am terribly impressed
by your photographs.
..
VL