UFO. Russia

Yu. Linnik writes to the Commission on:

An unusual meteorite or a singular UFO?

On February 11, 1978, I witnessed a strikingly beautiful and impressive phenomenon. At about 21-25 Moscow time, I went out to observe the starry sky. Almost immediately, I noticed a dazzlingly bright body near the front "paws" of the Big Dipper (near the star Talifa, iota of the Big Dipper). It was blue in color, but at times it seemed to emit instantaneous pulses of red. The body was moving rapidly towards me. However, its speed was not lightning fast, as with ordinary meteorites, when the body disappeared behind the roof, I hesitated a little, still managed to run around the corner of the house and continued observing this unusual phenomenon. I saw that the body was moving towards the Pegasus "square" leaning over the West. Its brightness was increasing. It seemed that the body was flying very low, I clearly remembered its teardrop shape (I associated it with the contour of Tsiolkovsky rockets), I think that at this moment its angular dimensions were about 8-10 minutes, whereas at the initial moment of observation, although the body was very large, I find it difficult to estimate its size, partly due to with my confusion, but probably the angular dimensions of the body increased as they approached me.

At about 10 degrees above the "square" of Pegasus, the body suddenly stopped, and at that time its luminosity became enormous: I noticed that a clear shadow lay on the snow from me. There was a crescent moon nearby, which gave incomparably fainter shadows. At some point it seemed to me that it was as bright as day, only it was an unusual blue light that somewhat resembled the light of a mercury lamp. That's when the outline of the object was imprinted in my memory - the impression that it was very close to the earth became most noticeable. After this bright flash, the object disappeared.

I was also struck by the completely unusual trajectory of the object. I have good experience observing various meteor showers, but this was the first time I saw such a trajectory, it resembled the movement of a "firecracker" launched at a fireworks display: maybe this is not an accurate image, but it created a feeling of some kind of pyrotechnic rather than astronomical phenomenon. The trajectory of the object had a clear zigzag pattern, not at all like the smooth oscillation of other UFOs I have observed. 

Perhaps it was a meteorite type that entered the atmosphere at an unusual angle, but its movement across the sky was very long, taking at least 20-25 seconds. I am also confused by the presence of the object's shape, contours, which is typical for meteorites, usually similar to a spark with a trace of a stroke. By the way, the body did not leave such a stroke. It is difficult to associate the object I observed with a fireball. The observation of this phenomenon, which is rare in beauty, left me with a feeling of deep mystery.