Reports are still trickling in about the massive meteor shower seen over the Kootenays May 12.

The shower is believed to be part of the annual eta Aquarids display that occurs every May and is made up of particles of ice and dust from the tale of Halley’s Comet which last passed close to earth in 1986 and is not due back for an encore until 2061.

Cranbrook resident Alida Lockhart said she’d just came outside after watching a performance of “Footloose” the night of May 12 and was walking through the Safeway parking lot when she saw the celestial display.

“I just about missed it but I looked up and it looked like some fireworks that went sideways instead of straight up . . . It seemed to me really close and not too far away.”

Lockhart, a deli manager at Safeway, said the meteor emitted a white light that gradually turned red before the space body disappeared in the sky. Some teenagers behind her also saw the extra-terrestrial display. “I heard a young girl say ‘oh, did you see that.’ But I didn’t think too much about it because I thought it might have been fireworks or a flare.”

Marlana Realini was playing slow-pitch softball in Kimberley the night that the meteor shot across the sky. “It was absolutely amazing. It was like something out of the movie Armageddon or something like that.”

Realini said the meteor looked like a Roman candle in the sky, a description other observers have made. “It was just there and suddenly, poof, it was gone.”

Calgary resident Greg Pieszko e-mailed the Daily Townsman to say he saw the mysterious space object too

“I live in downtown Calgary with an unobstructed view of the southern sky. On May 12 around 9:43 p.m., I was on my sixth floor balcony facing south. The object was 10 to 15 degrees above the horizon when I first saw it. It was very bright and split in half during entry to the atmosphere.

“The two half pieces continued to glow for approximately two to three seconds and it moved from east to west for approximately 10 seconds in total. By my approximation, if any of it made it through the atmosphere, Cranbrook may be the place where something might have made it to the ground.”

Pieszko said he saw small comets enter the atmosphere prior to seeing the meteorite. “They were fast streaks of light half-a-second long in duration. This one was very bright and moved somewhat slowly across the sky. It was amazing to see.”