It wasn’t a bird, it wasn’t a plane and it wasn’t Superman.

A Red Deer astronomer, Kevin Bilston, wonders if anyone else saw what he saw Tuesday morning.

He said he believes what he witnessed was a burning rocket or a piece of junk floating around in the atmosphere at 11:07 a.m.

The unknown fireball was bright, travelling from west to east and was visible to the naked eye.

Describing the fireball, the Rosedale resident said what he saw go past his house had a tail like comets do. But he’s positive, it wasn’t a comet or meteor.

Bilston, 60, has been following astronomy since he was 16 and has witnessed comets and meteors in his lifetime, but that’s usually at nighttime.

“The sky was completely blue and the sun was out so it was probably something else burning in our atmosphere,” he said.

He said when things are sent into space, they sometimes fall back and one can catch the bits from, say, space rockets with pieces falling back into Earth.

Whatever it was, Bilston hopes it wasn’t Santa’s sleigh burning up and so do we.

mamta.lulla@reddeeradvocate.com
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