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Security camera on a house in Tulameen catches bright flash as it passes by

Meteor caught on camera?

Contributed Oliver Kaulfuss

Early in November, a security camera on a home out in Tulameen caught a bright flash of green light as it zipped through the sky for a few seconds.

The homeowner, Oliver Kaulfuss, said that the property out in Tulameen near Princeton isn't his primary residence and they only found out about it after a notification came through.

Kaulfuss said he didn't know what it was, but shared it with the rest of the family to figure it out.

His father-in-law, Jim Mulchinock, posted the video with a Tulameen Facebook group, hoping some others might have seen it too. The camera films the house at the upper end of Otter Lake, looking SE towards Otter Mountain.

The explosion was bright enough to see the background mountains and light up the deck just after 5 a.m. on Nov. 5. The family's best guess is it was an exploding meteor.

Mulchinock forwarded that clip to a meteor watcher site and told him they think it was part of other sightings at the time. They encouraged him to fill out their online sighting form, which he is in the process of doing.

Throughout November sky-watchers have had the opportunity to see the peaks of two meteor showers, a full lunar eclipse and the tail end of a third meteor shower.

One still running is the Leonid meteor shower, which started on Nov. 3 and carries through Dec. 2. The Leonids are also popular for producing "bright meteors with a high percentage of persistent trains."

According to the American Meteorological Society, there may be "good displays" of up to 100 shooting stars per hour.



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