Meteor lights up New England sky mid-afternoon

HINGHAM, Mass. -- Just as fast as it had appeared, it was gone. A meteor shot through the New England sky mid-afternoon on Wednesday, CBS Boston reports. 

"It was neon blue, neon green, and turquoise. Just a big streak and it just went shoosh," said Matt Galvin, who saw the meteor.

A home surveillance camera in Connecticut managed to capture a fleeting glimpse of it, but not many other cameras did.

Ron Dantowitz, from the Clay Observatory in Brookline, Massachusetts, said the phenomenon was a part of the ongoing Orionid meteor shower, where debris from the famed Halley's Comet makes its annual bombardment of Earth.

"The meteors people see in the sky at night can be spectacular, but to see one in the daytime can be extremely rare," said Dantowitz.

Meteors seen at night are often no larger than specks of sand burning up in the atmosphere. In order for it to be seen in broad daylight, it has to be much bigger.

"Even if something the size of a golf ball, or your hand, going at 150,000 miles an hour as these meteors often go, put on a spectacular display," Dantowitz said.

Galvin considers himself lucky to have seen the rare daytime show.

"Boom, it was gone. It was maybe five seconds," he said. 

According to Dantowitz, "at that speed, you can drive from Boston to New York in five seconds."

Experts say that despite how close it looked, the meteor burned up long before it hit the ground.

The shower will peak over the weekend.