Meteor fireballs across U.S. in night sky

Astronomers say the bright light that streaked across the night sky Tuesday was "almost certainly" a meteor.

The city of Phoenix captured the illumination on one of its observation cameras and posted it to Twitter. In the video, a large, glowing bulb appears in the top-right frame and then fades out in three seconds. 

A smaller light can be seen in the lower portion of the frame, off in the horizon.  It happened around 8:30 p.m. MT. The American Meteor Society received 110 fireball reports from Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada and Utah on Tuesday.

Specifically, the meteor was a "bolide" a type of fireball that explodes in a bright terminal flash, according to the American Meteor Society.

A moonless sky Friday should make for good viewing of the Leonids meteor shower this year. But it's not an especially plentiful shower. 

NASA predicts no more than 10 meteors an hour, and some will be faint, so you won't be able to see them all.