A large fireball was seen streaking through the night sky by at least 21 people - three of them from Delaware - about 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Witnesses reported the sighting on the American Meteor Society's website.

Middletown-area resident Dan Foraker said he also spotted it, and described the meteor as a "perfectly round ball of fire."

Foraker, who lives near Drawyers Creek off Shallcross Lake Road, said he was sitting outside talking on the phone with his son about the Redskins game, when all of a sudden a ball of fire appeared over the line of trees.

"I've never seen anything that big. I didn't know if there was a plane going down," he said. "It lasted for about six seconds and went down behind the trees. I didn't hear a sound, but I was waiting to hear a loud boom."

Foraker said he called police and a county officer showed up later and said that the state police helicopter was the only aircraft that had been up in the air about that time.

A supervisor with the New Castle County fire board today said no calls were received about that time and no one was dispatched on any calls for a plane down.

The American Meteor Society, meanwhile, is investigating 21 reports from witnesses who saw this fireball over Washington, D.C., Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia and West Virginia between 7 p.m. and 8:13 p.m.

The nonprofit scientific organization was established to "inform, encourage and support the research activities of both amateur and professional astronomers who are interested in the fascinating field of Meteor Astronomy."

Observers collect data related to meteors, meteor showers, fireballs and other meteoric phenomena and report it to the organization.

The ball of fire was reported by a witness in Wilmington about 7:08 p.m., one in Ellendale at 7:14 p.m. and a witness in Lewes at 7:15 p.m. About that same time, an observer in Salisbury, Md. also reported a sighting.

Another massive fireball was sighted about 7:30 p.m. Saturday night in the Atlanta area and was reported to the scientific organization by 250 witnesses in Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina, according to the website.