Thousands of people noticed a flash, followed by glints of lights and a long, oddly shaped cloud overhead Wednesday evening.

Related Articles Cosmic coincidence: Solstice, full moon and meteor shower Around 5:45 p.m., an apparent meteor entered the earth’s atmosphere and put on a brief display.

Confusion about its origin came not only from the mystically inclined, but plenty of rational observers expecting to see the contrail of a Delta IV rocket meant to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

But Wednesday’s launch was scratched at the last minute over a hydrogen leak.

Hello from #DeltaIVHeavy mission control! We're counting down to the #NROL71 launch for the National Reconnaissance Office at 5:44pm PST tonight. Tune into our live broadcast starting at 5:24pm PST https://t.co/wLoggekye0 pic.twitter.com/kz2yvtMfSl — ULA (@ulalaunch) December 20, 2018

The launch time has been adjusted slightly to 5:49pm PST (8:49 p.m. EST; 0149 UTC) that takes into account the earlier brief hold in the countdown. #NROL71 #DeltaIVHeavy — ULA (@ulalaunch) December 20, 2018

We are having some problems with the website and live blog updates. Please stand by as we are currently working to resolve the issue. #NROL71 #DeltaIVHeavy — ULA (@ulalaunch) December 20, 2018

Launch Alert: we have declared a scrub for today's launch of the #DeltaIVHeavy. We will set up for a 24 hour recycle and the next launch attempt will be 12/20 at 5:31pm PST. — ULA (@ulalaunch) December 20, 2018

And that left folks on the ground noticing something odd overhead.

Sorry for the defroster sound , wtf was this , Meteor ? Rocket ? pic.twitter.com/zNR4h5cPgP — Richard (@Richifornia) December 20, 2018

this was about a minute earlier. it flashed bright green for a few seconds as it fell and appeared to split up. biggest, most impressive asteroid (?) I’ve ever seen pic.twitter.com/LkTwVnaktW — Jeremy Thomas (@jeremythomas33) December 20, 2018

Anyone else see this interesting cloud feature? We saw it here at the office. #cawx pic.twitter.com/nc8xdZ5jj4 — NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) December 20, 2018

The Delta IV rocket launch was scrubbed this evening at Vandenberg AFB. Did anyone else see this beautiful sunset and light in the western sky? This is a view from the Diamond Peak @NVSeismoLab AlertTahoe camera. pic.twitter.com/2ekBnRfFRq — NWS Reno (@NWSReno) December 20, 2018

Didn’t get to see #NROL71 go, but a huge bolide appeared in the northwest sky and left a trail! It was about as bright as Venus! Got some snaps of the trail on my DSLR. Definitely fragmented in a boom, which we did not hear, as it was traveling away, SE-to-NW. pic.twitter.com/iBmn7RHJPq — The Most Random Bowl of Cereal (@jaredhead) December 20, 2018

Still not 100% certain, but evidence is growing the object seen was a meteor. A meteor can create a very high level cloud called a noctilucent cloud. @NASA has a great webpage explaining the cloud formation. https://t.co/eDquECamLl #cawx — NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) December 20, 2018

And, of course, at least one observer floated a seasonal occurence as a possible explanation.

This is clearly a Santa Claus test run… https://t.co/MDi6DIudNw — Matt Keller (@MattKellerABC7) December 20, 2018

Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.