Chance photo captures meteor's spectacular display
Jono Matla had just pressed the shutter button when the night sky lit up.
Starting as a ball of orange, a meteor was cutting its way through the sky over Waikanae, north of Wellington, turning a neon green as it went.
"I had literally just pressed the button to take [the photo] and I looked up and saw it," he said.
It was also pure chance he was out at all.
Earlier in the evening, Matla got a call from a friend who was taking photos in Paraparaumu. It prompted Matla to do some stargazing of his own and he headed to the beach near his house to see what he could photograph in the sky.
"It was a really clear night, so I thought I'd head out."
Matla - who's been a photographer since about 2012 - took six shots with a 50mm lens to make the vertical panorama. It was on the last shot, just after he pressed the shutter, when the meteor shot past.
It burned out after about four seconds, but Matla had it on his camera - a striking green streak across the sky.
Ironically, the friend who prompted Matla to go out missed the spectacle completely, but was impressed to hear what the outcome was.
"He just said it was so crazy. He's never seen anything like it."
It was also a first for Matla.
"I've never seen anything, anything as big and bright as that one.
"I'm pretty stoked with it."
While Matla had it on camera, he wasn't alone in seeing it. Reports had come in from across the North Island and as far south as Nelson.
"I saw it, but only out of the corner of my eye," Clare Yates said in an email. "Very freaky and I literally jumped out of my seat.
In West Harbour, Auckland, Eviie King described it as "a strike of silver then a flash of blue/green light", while in Mirimar, Wellington, Anita Winkels' husband thought a plane was crashing.
Another tipster said they had "no explanation for what this is".
"Hopefully someone can put it to rest, but it looks like a damn UFO to me."
The colour of the meteor - from orange to its striking green - would be down to the material it was made of, said Nigel Forst, Superintendent of Mt John Observatory in Tekapo, South Canterbury.
He said Mt John had no reports of sightings so far south, but said the curve of Earth would have an effect on that.
"Further south it would be less visible. As we go round the curve of the Earth we will be less likely to see it."
Image credit: Jono Malta
Written by Jeff Tollan. First appeared on Stuff.co.nz.
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