Super Bright Meteor Caught on Video in Madison

According to the American Meteor Society, 1,000 to 2,000 meteors streak across the sky each hour every night. Many of these are too faint or small to see with the naked eye, but some are bright enough and large enough to leave an impression on you when you witness them in the sky! Here’s what you should be looking for in the night sky and how you can watch out for shooting stars!

Meteor showers are caused by dusty debris from comets, asteroids and other celestial objects, according to NASA. Because these objects orbit the sun in a belt between Mars and Jupiter, their orbits bring them close enough to Earth’s orbit for them to collide with our atmosphere. Watching a meteor shower is just like enjoying any kind of stargazing: Pack a blanket, find somewhere comfortable with an unobstructed view of as much sky as possible and have some patience.

Meteor showers are usually visible in late July and early August, but they’re most prominent during Perseids. If you want to make sure you don’t miss any shooting stars, pay attention between mid-July and mid-August. This is when you’ll see all of Earth’s annual meteor showers. To increase your chances of seeing a meteor shower, it's best to go out in rural areas far away from big cities where light pollution is less common.

However, don't sleep on the winter meteors that seem to be happening once a week theese days!

"Viewers contacted WKOW about a sudden brightness at 6:48 am and video from the rooftop of UW-Madison's SSEC/AOS department confirms that it was in fact a meteor."

Our friends up in North Liberty, Iowa got a show a couple Sundays ago.  According to their Facebook post below, their plow driver, Ryan, was pulling in and caught it with his bare eyes.  Then remembered the security system was on and sure enough...they caught the "shooting star"...or as I like to call them, "flaming space rock"...on camera.