Possible Satellite or Meteor

When I was very young, probably around 10 years old in the mid 1980's,
I witnessed something in the sky that I still haven't figured out. I
remember looking up and seeing at the time what I thought was a meteor.
It had a definitive head and tail and seemed to last in the sky for a
couple minutes. The thing I found odd about the sighting was the fact
it had significant size, an extremely low angle, and moved incredibly
slow. From my line of sight it couldn't have moved more than 6 inches
before slowly fading away. I'm not 100% certain about the color but I
believe it was rust-like. I'm not very knowledgeable about astronomy
so my best guess is this was a satellite re-entering the atmosphere.
Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks.

-JB

On 4 Dec 2005 17:50:01 -0800, "JBones" wrote:

When I was very young, probably around 10 years old in the mid 1980's,
I witnessed something in the sky that I still haven't figured out. I
remember looking up and seeing at the time what I thought was a meteor.
It had a definitive head and tail and seemed to last in the sky for a
couple minutes. The thing I found odd about the sighting was the fact
it had significant size, an extremely low angle, and moved incredibly
slow. From my line of sight it couldn't have moved more than 6 inches
before slowly fading away. I'm not 100% certain about the color but I
believe it was rust-like. I'm not very knowledgeable about astronomy
so my best guess is this was a satellite re-entering the atmosphere.
Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks.

Re-entries of space debris are rapid- several seconds. You could have
seen a rocket launch, if it was generally going upwards and you lived
within a few hundred miles of a launch facility. If it was not too long
after sunset (or before dawn) you could have seen a contrail lit by the
Sun. If it was all head and no tail, it could have been a weather
balloon.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

I want to say it was near vertical and definitely had a tail. It was
during the evening, probably 7 or 8 pm and took place in NJ where I
don't believe are any launch facilities. It had to stay visible for a
couple minutes, because I remember running inside my house trying to
find someone to look at it and then coming back outside only to see it
somewhat faded.

-JB

Oops, I meant it was near horizontal.

-JB