Meteor hunters, take note: we have learnt more about the possible location of meteor fragments.
A massive meteor flew over Cranbrook early on Saturday morning, briefly turning night to day. It was also spotted from Nelson.
Video taken by the College of the Rockies meteor cam seemed to show the meteor breaking up to Cranbrook’s southwest
Dr. Alan Hildebrand of the Canadian Fireball Reporting Centre, after watching the video, guessed that meteor fragments may have fallen near the East Shore of Kootenay Lake.
But a witness who saw the meteor near Creston said that can’t be right.
“If they’re looking around the lake, they’re looking in the wrong spot,” said Esther Aylward, who was camping at Canyon Park on Friday night.
“I just happened to be up because I couldn’t sleep and I saw it and it was behind Canyon Park, on the mountains on that side.”
Because it was dark, Aylward said she couldn’t tell if the meteor came down in front of or behind the mountain ranges to the east of Canyon, but it didn’t cross overhead.
“I saw it for more than 30 seconds. It didn’t seem to go anywhere. Maybe it went down behind the mountains, I’m not sure,” she said. “It was just in one spot, burning up.”
Eye witnesses elsewhere in the region described the fireball as being a greenish blue colour, but Aylward said when she saw it, the meteor was red and orange.
As it disappeared, she heard a loud boom.
“I didn’t know what the hell I was seeing. I’m like, ‘What the heck’s going on?’
Anyone who saw the meteor can report sightings at http://miac.uqac.ca.
The rare footage taken by the College of the Rockies meteor cam can be seen at facebook.com/TownsmanBulletin.
— Sally Macdonald, Cranbrook Daily Townsman
