Join the Fireball Aotearoa Section and Help find New Zealand’s 11^th meteorite!

We are currently building a public network of fireball-tracking cameras with the goal of locating New Zealand’s next meteorite. These cameras capture the night sky (on clear nights!) and are triggered by bright flashes. The camera data are each day uploaded to the Global Meteor Network (you can see the information captured here: https://globalmeteornetwork.org/weblog/NZ/index.html). With enough cameras capturing a fireball, it is possible to triangulate the trajectory, speed and mass of the rock traversing Earth’s atmosphere, and therefore the strewn field for potential meteorites. This led to one meteorite search in Dunedin in mid-2022. We expect that several meteorites per year should land in NZ, although only 9 have been documented in the last 160 years. It is also possible to identify meteor showers (one camera in 2022 captured > 400 meteors in one night).

Many observatories and schools across NZ are already part of the program and we are looking for more of the public to join in.

We have some cameras available to RASNZ members. Cameras can be purchased for $550 (this covers the cost of the parts and shipping). With confirmation of a payment and an address, we will immediately place one in the mail. We can provide support to install it and manage the camera.

Please write to Professor James Scott (james.scott@otago.ac.nz) at the University of Otago with copy to Nalayini Davies (president@rasnz.org) if you are interested. There are limited numbers of cameras, so it is unfortunately first in, first served. 

The adjacent image: A whole night sky stacked image from Dunstan High School (Alexandra), showing a meteor shower and a bright fireball

The group observed the fireball, calculated the area the meteorite was likely to be found, then searched for and found New Zealand's 10th meteorite, We are now looking for the 11th!

Article added: Monday 20 February 2023