For the past few years (2000-2002), most of my astronomical observations have consisted of tracking and imaging meteors using an instrument that I call the Meteor Tracker. It allows for high resolution video imaging over a wide field area. A pervious version of the instrument called the "AIM-IT" prototype was flown on the 2002 Leonid MAC mission. The current Meteor Tracker consists of a wide field image intensified camera who's video signal is processed by a computer. The computer detects meteors and steers two mirrors attached to stepper motors, that sit in front of a high resolution video camera. Image of Meteor Tracker
The Biggest Baddest One So Far -
An estimated -8 magnitude meteor imaged over the Atlantic Ocean from the NASA DC-8
during the 2002 Leonid MAC mission.
The field of view is around 8 X 6 degrees. I missed this actual event because I was
in the back of the plane eating.
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Meteor Tracker images from Dec 14, 2004
A bright Geminid meteor passes Betelgeuse... Image 1 Image 6 Image 2 Image 7 Image 3 Image 8 Image 4 Image 9 Image 5 Wide Field Camera Image RegiStax enhanced wide-field image
Narrow Field camera Animated GIF (2.1 Mb) This was a fairly impressive Geminid lasting over 1.5 seconds and reaching several times the brightness of Betelgueuse. The 9 images above are from the narrow field camera; a PC-164 HR with a 35mm f1.2 lens ~ 8x6 deg FOV. |
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More 2004 Geminids: Geminid Dec 14, 2004 07:36UT Narrow Field Camera 780 Kb Animated GIF Geminid Dec 14, 2004 08:51UT Narrow Field Camera 474 Kb Animated GIF |
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Meteor Tracker images from Nov 17, 2004 Leonid Nov 17, 2004 This image is an integration of two video frames. The meteor was located close to the radiant. Animated GIF 512 Kb Animated GIF is made up of 40 individual deinterlaced video fields and is slower than real motion. The images have been cropped in size. |
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August 2004:
09-19-2004 09-20-2004 - More video fields
2004 Perseids - the weather was awful for the peak. Single video fields of an early Perseid shot with the Meteor Tracker. Imaged with a PC-164 High Res video camera and 35mm F/1.2 lens. FOV is approximately 8x6 degrees. Aug 10,2004 04:25:14 UT Perseid Meteor - Another field. Going, going... - Integration of 7 video fields
August 11 Sporadic - Another field.
Integration of a few video fields The images below offer a good view of how the Meteor Tracker tracks a meteor. The August 11th 2004 sporadic lasted for several video frames and was heading nearly straight down with respect to the instrument's alignment. During detection and tracking, the mirrors are positioned to reflect the meteor's image into the high resolution camera. The system continues to monitor the meteor's location via a video feed from a wide field camera and after it passes a certain distance, the next mirror positioning command is issued. This process is repeated until the meteor is no longer brighter than detection and triggering threshhold levels. In the case of this meteor, the mirrors were repositioned three times after the original detection and positioning. 739 Kb Slow-mo Animated GIF of tracked meteor
Here are the four integrated segments as images:
Integrated without slewing frames |
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