Object Lights Night Sky Across Canadian Prairies

clarkn0va writes "Witnesses as far as 720 kilometers apart reported seeing what looked like a bright meteor falling somewhere on the Saskatchewan-Alberta boundary around 5:30 pm MT Thursday, according to the CBC. Here's video of the incident as seen from Edmonton."

Triangulate! Triangulate!

[arth1]

With many reports coming in about what direction the object was seen in, can't one simply disregard any wild guesses as to how close it was, and just draw vectors based on the directions of the observers? With this many observers, one should quickly be able to pinpoint the flash, and where to look for meteorites.

Re:Triangulate! Triangulate!

[MachDelta]

They're already working on it. Reports have come in from as far away as British Columbia. Lots of people saw it in cities all over Alberta and Saskatchewan. Assuming they can get a good vector from the two major population centers that saw it (Edmonton and Saskatoon), finding it should be possible given enough time. They already have it narrowed down to somewhere in the south of Lloydminster, east of Wainwright, north of Provost, west of Cut Knife area. Granted that is a massive area (something the size of Yellowstone National park) but with futher refinements they'll come closer and closer. The real problem at this point is racing against the first snowfall that sticks. The area is having an unusually warm start to winter and snow could come any week. Once that happens the chances of finding any meteorite remains diminish considerably.