SEEN OYER WIDE AREA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 5 January 1945, Page 4

SEEN OYER WIDE AREA

REPORTS ON METEOR ATTEMPT BEING MADE TO PLOT COURSE The meteor which made its appearance on Saturday night was seen in more localities than was at first realised and reports of it have come from as far south; as Christchurch and as far north as jPokeno <4O miles south of Auckland). It is thought that the meteor seen n some localities in the north may have been a piece whicli broke from the Original and went off on a course of itsy own. It is also possible that it was another meteor which was seen by New Plymouth. Pokeno, Rotorua and Gisborne residents. That suggestion is prompted by an estimate of the height which the meteor would have to be to make it visible in Christ church and Pokeno at the same time The Carter Observatory in Wellington received a big mail from observers' yesterday and from the information given an attempt was made to plot the meteor’s course. The conclusions reached are only tentative and based on a preliminary study of reports. The observations will be studied by the meteor section of the N.Z. Astronomical Society and an official report will be made. The meteor was reported to be seen in the South Island at Christchurch, Lake Rotoiti. and Nelson, and fairly generally in the Wellington, Wairarapa, and Manawatu districts, and at Wanganui and southern Hawkes Bay. The reports from these places indicate that the meteor travelled in a northeasterly direction from Nelson across Marlborough. Wellington, and the Wairarapa and then seawards off the Porangahau coast Reports of a meteor seen at about the same time have also been receiver from the vicinity of Gisborne, New Plymouth. Rotorua, and Pokeno and it is thought that these may have been a portion of the main meteor which broke off and travelled north-wards. MAPUA RESIDENT HEARS EXPLOSION A Mapua resident writes: “Precisely at 8.55 p.m. on Saturday night when some people saw a meteor, an explosion resembling the explosions before the Murchison earthquake occurred. It carne from south to north under my house which it shook. But it was a ground explosion such as might come from a mountain. It is quite possible it had no connection with the meteor.”