Mysterious bright object in the sky over Moscow, Idaho

On March 10th at about 0500Z I looked up into the night sky and saw a large, bright red object moving very slowly from roughly the southeast toward the tail of the Big Dipper. It was easily the brightest object in the night sky at the time. I watched for about 5 minutes move very slowly. Then, suddenly it appeared to partially burst, dropping small red fireballs from its bottom side which fell and disappeared quickly below it. Then the object itself disappeared from the sky just as it reached the end of the Dipper's handle. I have no idea what it was, but it was fantastic to watch. Later in the evening I filed a report with the American Meteor Society.