a slither of orange/red almost like a meteor trail

it moved slowly like a cloud would & the only change on shape was its length which would become longer & then shorter. We looked at it through a telescope & could clearly see a black dot at the base but it did not make sense because the shape was not falling down rather than travelling left to right. It did not make any sense as we watched it through the scope it faded quickly. It was not a cloud it was not falling debris - we are sensible people & we know what we saw.

I cant understand how an object with a black dot base & a trail implying the object is falling can travel horizontally? I have a very poor photo on my digicam. There are many airplanes but this can not be attributed to them. having never seen anything like this i am frustrated at trying to describe it.