Seasonal & Holidays

Madison Researchers Catch Meteor's Flight Over Southern Wisconsin On Camera

Video shows a meteor briefly appear over Madison in footage caught by UW-Madison's Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

WISCONSIN — A fireball was spotted hurtling across southern Wisconsin on Thursday, and an appearance was caught on camera by the University of Wisconsin - Madison Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

A 15-second video shows a meteor briefly appearing Madison and disappearing back into the morning sky at 6:48 a.m.

The department said that the footage was captured with its facility rooftop cameras and thanked WKOW meteorologist Max Tsaparis.

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The cameras are meant to make timelapse videos of clouds over Madison, but occasionally they catch a shooting star if they're pointed in the right direction, UW-Madison system programmer Pete Pokrandt told Patch.

"This happens fairly regularly, we get calls at least once a month telling us about a shooting star and asks us to check our cameras," Pokrandt said.

Find out what's happening in Milwaukeefor free with the latest updates from Patch.

The next meteor shower over Wisconsin will be the Lyrids, which run April 16-23. At least 20 shooting stars are expected for the peak.


See Also: WI 2022 Guide To Meteor Showers, Lunar Eclipses And Supermoons

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