Cloudbait Observatory – January 4, 2007 Fireball

A large object, thought to be a Russian second-stage rocket from a launch last week, broke up over the West in a spectacular display this morning may have been visible from Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico in addition to Colorado. It made the morning news in Denver because commute-report news helicopters managed to capture good video images of it. It passed very close to Grand Junction, my home town and a fairly large population center.

If you saw the object, you can file a report at the Cloudbait.com site.

 I don't know if it would have been visible from Salt Lake – it was fairly close to the horizon and the Wasatch Mountains may have blocked the view, unless somebody in the family happened to be "up" at the family cabin my cousin owns in Lambs Canyon. There's a good view to the east as far as Wyoming from the cabin's sleeping porch.

A Denver news station has video here.