Meteor spotted over southeast Wisconsin Wednesday evening

MILWAUKEE -- People all over southeast Wisconsin spotted what they thought was a meteor or fireball streaking across the sky Wednesday evening, April 11th just before 8:30 p.m. It appears what people saw was indeed a meteor.

The meteor (see below in the YouTube video) was visible for just a few seconds. But as the Senior Editor for the Waukesha-based Astronomy magazine, Rich Talcott looks at the sky for a living. "Meteors themselves are fairly common and if you happen to get under a dark sky, which in downtown Milwaukee isn't too common but if you get out to the suburbs you can see a few every hour," said Talcott.

Talcott says indeed the cast majority of meteors are so small, we simply don't notice them -- even if they are visible in more rural areas.

There will be another great opportunity to see more meteors on Saturday, April 21st. Assuming the sky is clear, that's when the Lyrid meteor shower will be most visible.

The YouTube video above shows the meteor enter the picture at about 20:21:24. The camera that captured the meteor faces west from the roof of the Atmospheric, Oceanic & Space Sciences Building at UW-Madison.

Credit: University of Wisconsin - AOS/SSEC