05/27/2026
On a gravel road north of Ernfold, Saskatchewan, is a unique space-age-looking structure that is fenced off with chain-link fencing. The gate was locked, but on the fencing is this sign with faded lettering:
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
Meteorite Observation and Recovery Project
Project headquarters – University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK
NO TRESSPASING
The square-shaped structure with a triangular roof (with little windows in it) was centred in the compound and was mounted on a single concrete pier. A real puzzler!
So, after I got home, it was time to do some research, and I found out about the Meteorite Observation and Recovery Project (MORP). MORP was a network of cameras dedicated to fireball tracking and meteorite recovery, located at locations across Western Canada from 1971 to 1985. Operated by the National Research Council, 12 observatories were tasked to photograph fireballs and pinpoint fall locations over an area of 700,000 square kilometres.
The planning & construction of the observatories were accomplished in the late 1960s within the Astronomy Division of the Dominion Observatory, then a branch of the Federal Department of Energy, Mines, and Resources. The locations were planned so that glare from the larger municipalities would not interfere with the camera equipment. As well, the sites needed to have power and be accessible by roads, preferably with not much traffic. The field headquarters was at the campus of the University of Saskatchewan, near the geographical center of the network.
The first observatory was located west of Saskatoon in the summer of 1968, followed by modifications that were later introduced in the subsequent buildings that followed in the next few years. The entire MORP network became operational in 1971. The location of the observatories is as follows:
Manitoba
- Birch River
- Alonsa
Saskatchewan
- Langenburg
- Watson
- Lajord
- Ernfold
- Asquith
- Neilburg
- Leader
Alberta
- Vegreville
- Lousana
- Brooks
Each observatory operated 5 cameras, each one covering about 54 degrees of the azimuth near the horizon. These cameras (specially built by Charles Hulcher Company out of Virginia) included a wide-angle 50m lens using Kodak 70mm film in 100-foot rolls. The cameras were pointed at the triangular-shaped roof with heated glass openings. On top of the roof was a meteor detector, designed & built by SPAR Aerospace out of Toronto (makers of the famous Canadarm), which consists of light-sensitive photomultiplier tubes that would be able to detect and respond to the meteor. The machine would then print the time and advance the film after a delay, to ensure any pictures that are recorded are safe. The observatory was heated & cooled and included additional control systems to control the cameras and various recording equipment.
The observatory would be visited twice a week by an operator who lived nearby. Sometimes residents were trained to help as well, in case of inclement weather or to cover for sickness. The operators would check the film and, if necessary, would change it out and mail it to the UofS in aluminum containers. At the University, the film would be processed in an automatic processor that handled 3 rolls of film at a time, requiring 3 hours per batch. After processing, the film is mounted on a five-film viewer to be synchronized and examined by the technicians.
During the duration of the program, over 1000 meteorites were recorded by the observatories, and out of that amount, 79 were recovered for further analysis by the NRC.
Photographed in March 2026. For further information, check out:
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/scan/manifest/1978JRASC..72...15H
https://artsandscience.usask.ca/museumofnaturalsciences/programming/meteorites/home-page.php
