Video of Saturday night's bright meteor over Vancouver

Last night, Vancouverites lit up Twitter after seeing a large, bright meteor streak across the region’s night sky.

There is no question that much luck is required for anyone to capture the spontaneous event that lasts for mere seconds, never mind an actual video of it.

West Vancouver resident Roger Ting had set-up his GoPro camera for this weekend’s Northern Lights, which managed to catch a glimpse of the meteor that caused all the chatter.

The event occurred at approximately 8:20 p.m. Witnesses said it glowed brightly green, streaking the dark skies from a east to west trajectory for about 3 seconds. It was also seen in Vancouver Island and as far south as Los Angeles.

Ting told Vancity Buzz the video can be viewed in 4K ultra HD, but because of the GoPro’s low performance in conditions with poor lighting, the video appears slightly grainy.

[youtube id=”FdLM2EZnVIk”]

Others have also taken to social media to post photos of a long-lasting “smoke” streak in the sky as they believed it might have been the meteor.

However, they captured their photos nearly an hour before the actual meteor streak – when the sun had just set and the sky was still bright. In addition, the streaks had a north to south orientation instead of a east to west direction as described by many eyewitnesses and recorded on video.

Not to be confused for the meteor, these photos below were most likely contrails from high-altitude flying jetliners along the usual north-south commercial routes over the Strait of Georgia and Vancouver Island.

@CTVVancouver Is 1 of these 2 streaks across #englishbay the #meteor? I thought they were both planes #Vancouver pic.twitter.com/DC5qDeLxWE

— Chris (@cmjfong) September 14, 2014

I knew that wasn’t a plane! Lol took this at Ambleside @CTVVancouver pic.twitter.com/SyntZYqs3m

— Brandy (@_MissBrandy_) September 14, 2014

 Feature Image: YouTube screencap via Roger Ting