A Salmon Arm man believes he has his cat to thank for capturing a striking comet streaking across the sky above his home early Monday morning.
Wes Penner, whose home near Canoe Beach faces Bastion Mountain, normally has the security camera in his living room pointing down at his driveway.
But at 1:07 a.m. Oct. 27, the camera was pointed upward with the sky in view, at the perfect time and angle to capture Comet Lemmon, which has had people looking up above for the past several nights.
“I think our cat bumped (the security camera) at some point and we heard there was a meteor, so we decided to check our cameras and there it was,” Penner told Black Press Media Tuesday morning.
Penner’s cat appears to have an affinity for astronomy, as the security camera adjustment made for some rare footage of Comet Lemmon.
The famed comet has been spotted elsewhere in the B.C. Interior, with residents taking to Facebook saying they spotted it from Revelstoke and Clearwater.
Comet Lemmon was discovered by the Mount Lemmon Survey on Jan. 3. According to Astronomy Magazine, many comet enthusiasts believed the comet would reach its brightest point on Oct. 21, when it was closest to Earth, but it continued to brighten for several days past that date.