A fiery ball of light seen across the sky near Papamoa has been captured on video.

Chris Heywood at Pukehina has filmed what some are wondering could have been a piece of space junk, a meteor or maybe something else.

After it tracked across the clear evening sky on Sunday, Claire Smith posted a question to the Bay of Plenty and Waikato Weather and Natural Events Facebook page asking if anyone else had seen a 'fiery ball that came down in sky near Arataki /Papamoa”.

It was also reported to have been seen from Arataki falling towards Mount Maunganui.

Chris uploaded his video which shows the light at 6.56pm.

Tauranga Astronomical Society president Dave Greig says it won't be from the Chinese rocket which last week was expected to possibly be coming down over the Pacific Ocean.

Remnants of a massive Chinese booster rocket made an uncontrolled return to Earth falling over the Indian Ocean over the weekend.

'Due to the direction of travel, I doubt it was part of the meteor showers,” says Dave. 'I suspect it was just a random meteor or possibly another piece of space junk burning up.

'Meteor showers have a "radiant point" where most of the meteors appear to emerge from. The radiant point of the recent meteor showers was in the North East. This meteor was heading North / North East. It could be from the showers, but I suspect it was unrelated.”

"There's nothing we can add, except that it was fortunate that skies were clear enough to capture whatever it was," says MetService Expert Meteorologist Peter Little.

A celestial firework display of meteor showers has been expected over the last week, with many reporting seeing meteors in the clear night skies over the weekend.

'They regularly appear this time of year and this year it's almost perfect conditions because the moon is new and that means the sky is really dark,” says Otago Museum director and astronomer Ian Griffin.