Spotted over Northland: 'Yellow fireball, tinged with green'

A fireball that was spotted over Portland, US, last year. Far North residents have reported seeing a burning object brighter than a normal meteor late last night. Photo / Facebook

Residents of a Far North holiday hotspot were treated to a flashy display of space fireworks late last night.

Cable Bay resident Sheryl Day was out on her deck at about 10.45pm when she saw what she described as a "large, intense yellow fireball, tinged with green".

"Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something bright, and as I turned, this great thing, almost like a fireball, just whizzed by.

"While Day frequently sees meteors when gazing at the night sky, these were typically distant and fleeting.

But this object, she said, seemed much closer as it "wooshed down and then just disappeared".

Others from around the area had also noticed the late-night spectacle, she said.

University of Auckland head of physics Professor Richard Easther said meteors were a "reasonably common" sight in our night skies.

"You'd get one of those a day, somewhere on the planet. It's not something that's a huge deal in its own right, but it is an interesting thing."

The most notable such event in recent times was a fireball that lit up the night sky over the North Island on February 11, 2015, as it soared through the air at 20 times the speed of a bullet.