Meteor Camera Networks - and Dual Detection of Fireball of 28th July 2012

[stewartw]

Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone knows of individuals / groups running meteor camera networks in the north of England?

The reason for the enquiry is that myself and a colleague from Leeds (Alex) had our first confirmed success a few days ago with a simultaneous detection of a fireball on 28th July 2012 @ 00.58.47 UTC from Nantwich & Leeds.

Both of us operate Watec 902H Cameras with Computar f0.8 lenses, Alex at 3.8mm, myself at 8mm.

Have attached a couple of videos - note the time-codes in the lower left hand corner. Also that the compression algorithm to reduce the file-size for posting has significantly compromised quality.

From this data we're able to triangulate the object's true path through the atmosphere and hence estimate the original orbit. The key problem is resolution ... at a few hundred arcsec / pixel (low res cameras and wide angle lenses), there is a certain degree of error - hence the request: If we had more observers then we could combine more results to help reduce the uncertaintly ...

While I appreciate that the chances are slim that others captured this particular event, a co-ordinated network could align their cameras to survey they same chunk of atmosphere from different locations such that better data can be derived from future events. Well, that's the theory

If you know of anyone, please ask them to send me a PM.

Thanks in advance

William

From Nantwich.wmv

From Leeds.wmv

[Black Knight]

Wow, they're really cool, well done!

[Delboy_Hog]

Yeah they're great, really spectacular!

[KE400]

Excellent videos.

Good luck with your quest

[Earl]

Very nice, its it possible from two films to calculate its trajectory?

[Mr Q]

If you can follow the trains back, the radiant (if annual shower related) will probably be in Perseus. This annual shower (Perseids) becomes active a week or two before the August 11th/12th peak and it's known for spectacular fireballs ("bolides") or it could have been a sporadic meteor.

In any case, both are awesome bolides you both captured - well done!

[stewartw]

The capture software is called UFOCapture - essentially it's motion capture software and can be used for meteors, satellites, aircraft, sprites (from the top of thunder clouds) and anything else that moves through the sky! I also regularly get bats, birds, insects, firework flashes, falling leaves ...

As part of the same suite of software there are two other programs - UFO Analyser and UFO Orbit.

The first one takes acount of the camera's location, the alt/az, FOV and time to analyse each capture - from this it can calculate duration, magnitude, direction and then from that which shower the meteor is likely to belong to (or if it was a sporadic).

The UFO Orbit software takes this information to estimate the orbit of the object (before the earth got in the way).

As with any measurement, there are always errors and so by being able to capture to the same object from two perspectives (and perform the above analyses with two differnet datasets) allows the resultant orbits to be compared - if they are similar then there is greater confidence that the derived orbit is an accurate representation of the particles orginal path around the sun.

For this object we're confident that it is not a Perseid - it may be a kappa Cygnid but we still have another potential shower candidate - but the way in which the capture from Ravensmoor lit up the clouds meant that the UFO Analyser software has struggled to make accurate measurements - the event was so bright there were a lot of saturated pixels!

It's still early days for Alex and I on this collaboration but we do believe we've simultaneously captured 13 seperate meteors in July (in spite of the weather) - as we enter meteor season (Perseids, Orionids, Leonids, Geminids between now and the end of the year) we're hoping for a lot more.

Best regards

William

[michaelmorris]

Thanks for posting. I'm just setting up a meteor camera myself, not a sophistocated as these set ups (Samsung SDC-435 and 2.1mm fisheye board camera lens), but it has encourage me that I may be able to catch a few meteors.

[stewartw]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for posting - please let me know how you get on.

Best regards

William

[ronaldo999]

Very good, this is an interesting way forward with observing.

[stewartw]

Hi All,

Apologies for the delay in posting an update - just to let you know that my quest was ultimately successful and that there are now at least a couple of networks operating in England:

http://ukmeteornetwork.co.uk/

and

www.nemetode.org

If anyone is interested in in contributing then please send me a PM

Thanks & regards

William