Two nights ago I was watching the sky, far away from here. High up in altitude. I saw ‘a shooting star’, which was part of what I was looking for. But it rose at the horizon, apparently, ‘straight up’ vertically, in my vision. I wondered at this, because I have never seen a shooting star rising vertically. I was aware that it appeared to be going straight up, and that it matched my experience of shooting stars.

I think the event was quite special. But not in ways I intend to here emphasize.

But, pragmatically, I did some quick analysis of the event and realized that there were probably situations in which something that was entering the atmosphere and falling toward the earth, would »appear to be rising vertically. Had I not done the analysis, I would have been likely to misinterpret the event.