Fireball over Berlin 2006-07-29 1.05
We have just observed a very bright luminous feature below a cloud in the morning sky, shortly before a thunderstorm, which slowly evolved into a luminous sphere of about 1 m diameter while hovering at a height of 300 m. The entire process lasted 7-8 minutes, during which time the sphere drifted through the sky at more or less the same altitude and then disappeared into the low hanging clouds.
The event took place over midtown Berlin, on July 29th, 2006 at 3:10 AM (this morning).
Looking northeast just before dawn on a well lit street, we saw what looked like a burning plane heading in for a crash or maybe a helicopter with searchlights on. We were concerned as to where it would drop. We had about 80% overcast sky with a cloud level at perhaps 400-500 m. The lights of the object appeared to be about 1 km away.
The luminous feature we saw had developed just below the clouds. It was about 10-15 m in diameter by the time that we noticed it, very bright with a steady light output and somewhat irregular in form. At first it looked like a burning airplane which was loosing considerable amounts of debris. Within a minute, it changed into what now appeared like a bright fuzzy cloud. There were no discernible features and no sharp edges. The color was at first yellow, then it became a deep reddish orange, rather unlike airplane lights.
The light was intense, maybe equivalent to 10-25 kW of sodium street lighting lamps.
The light output appeared to continuously increase during the first two minutes, perhaps because the object was approaching.
There was a thunderstorm just forming after a month of tropical heat, with the thermometer around 38°C in the daytime. We already had received a few drops of rain, but had no observable thunder or lightning yet. The feature appeared out of the clouds without any lightning that we could have noticed. It made no noise.
During the next few minutes, the luminous cloud slowly drifted across the sky with the wind in our direction, at a pace of 10 km/h, walking speed. After an initial increase, it lost it´s brightness at an exponential rate of about 50% per minute. At the same time the fuzzy halo decreased in size and we gained visibility of a luminous sphere of 1-1.5 m diameter. This sphere was clearly delimited by a deep red outer rim and had a somewhat transparent, also luminous, but blue-greenish-yellow inner region. This inner region appeared to be speckled. It looked like a small balloon or a luminescent bubble in mid air.
After having watched for several minutes and with the object still hovering in the sky, we started to dash for our appartment (which took just under 5 min, timed), in the hope that we might be able to catch it on film and aim a telescope at it. By the time we arrived, the luminous sphere was still hovering between the clouds, almost straight above us. The cloud level had decreased to 250 m, and after a few moments the object disappeared into the clouds.
Immediately thereafter it started to rain. We saw a single cloud-cloud lightning bolt. In other areas of Germany there were fierce thunderstorms during this night which caused considerable damage.

The object that we saw first appeared over the sky of Prenzlauer Berg as seen from the street Kastanienallee. We believe that we have noticed it immediately after it´s formation and we were able to track it during it´s entire development, until it disappeared over
Zionskirchplatz around 8 minutes later, almost directly above us and about 1-2 km from the position where we had first seen it.
TIMES: The times were estimated in retrospect. The true time of the first appearance will have been between 3:05 and 3:20 AM.
SIZES: The sizes were estimated based on the perceived distance and the angular width of the object. All distances are difficult to assess in the dark, with only the clouds as a reference. The error might be at most a factor of
2 in either direction.
Note:
We have just learned that a Russian commercial rocket has failed during it´s launch today and crashed with 18 satellites. The beginning of what we saw definitely looked like a large disintegrating meteor or satellites burning up, however, the feature was clearly seen below the clouds. The rocket crashed within 200 km after takeoff in Kazachstan.
We will try to find others who may have watched and perhaps photographed this event.
Wilfried Heil
Noemi Zudor
Zionskirchplatz 24
D-10119 Berlin
Tel.: (030) 4435 2150
Email: wilfried.heil@web.de