“Fireball” lights up Saskatchewan sky Saturday night

Saskatchewan residents were treated to a unique sight Saturday night, when a possible meteor lit up the night sky.

Saskatoon was a part of the sighting, as shown below on a doorbell video by Facebook user Adam Frank.

Tim Yaworski, member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) who saw the flash, told paNOW that it was a “fireball.”

“It was a very bright meteor known as a fireball,” he said.

“In the case of the [meteor] this weekend, it was just large enough that it took quite a long time to burn up and created a much brighter display than normal.”

James Edgar is a past president of the RASC.

Now living in Melville, Edgar wasn’t able to actually see the bright light in the sky Saturday. However, he has some of his own suspicions on what it could have been.

“Could be as simple as a small asteroid, or a meteor. Or, it could be a spent rocket body from a launch. Could have been years ago, it’s been orbiting the Earth,” he told 650 CKOM.

Edgar said when these events happen, report your sightings to the American Meteor Society.

During this event, there were 12 reports on the website. Based on the findings, the possible meteor was seen in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta and North Dakota.

— With files from paNOW’s Ronald Quaroni