Residents and Midland County sheriff's deputies reported seeing shooting stars over the weekend.
A media log entry states a Greendale Township resident reported seeing a light in the sky with a tail following it at 10:07 p.m. Saturday. Deputies saw several falling stars throughout the night, the entry states.
One of those sightings was reported by a deputy over his radio at 10:14 p.m. Saturday, and was heard over the scanner.
"I just saw a falling star to the north," he said. A dispatcher teased, "I did not realize you were an astronomer," and the jovial deputy replied that he was "just observant."
According to the
American Meteor Society, there were 14 reports of a fireball seen over Michigan and Ohio about 1:30 a.m. Sunday.
One of those reports came from a Gorgia F. in Mount Pleasant, who wrote it "looked like a shooting star, just much bigger and beautiful. It was coming down at an angle and looked as if it was heading down toward Rosebush or Clare."
Thirteen of the reports listed on the website are from Michigan, with the majority made from in Detroit area.
Comment: The eyewitness descriptions are very interesting because they synch with historical accounts of comets doing very strange things high up in the sky during past times of increased cometary flux. Clearly then the ancients were not imagining things... they were witnessing the electrical interaction of cometary bodies that appear to change direction, stand still, suddenly begin spinning, etc. as they discharge the Earth's atmosphere.
See here and here for recent videos of comet fragments pulling off spectacular celestial maneuvers. Note in particular this video report from a very similar event almost exactly three years ago in the same part of Australia.