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Software for Photometric and Astrometric Reduction of Video Meteors
Abstract
SPARVM is a Software for Photometric and Astrometric Reduction of Video Meteors being developed at Armagh Observatory. It is written in Interactive Data Language (IDL) and is designed to run primarily under Linux platform. The basic features of the software will be derivation of light curves, estimation of angular velocity and radiant position for single station data. For double station data, calculation of 3D coordinates of meteors, velocity, brightness, and estimation of meteoroid's orbit including uncertainties. Currently, the software supports extraction of time and date from video frames, estimation of position of cameras (Azimuth, Altitude), finding stellar sources in video frames and transformation of coordinates from video, frames to Horizontal coordinate system (Azimuth, Altitude), and Equatorial coordinate system (RA, Dec).
Armagh Observatory installed a sky monitoring system consisting of two wide angle (90° × 52°) and one medium angle (52° × 35°) cameras in July 2005. The medium angle camera is part of a double station setup with a similar camera in Bangor, ~73 km ENE of Armagh. All cameras use UFOCapture to record meteors automatically; software for off-line photometry, astrometry and double station calculations is currently being developed. The specifications of the cameras and cluster configuration are described in detail. 2425 single station meteors (1167, 861 and 806 by the medium-angle and the wide-angle cameras respectively) and 547 double station meteors were recorded during the months July 2005 to Dec 2006. About 212 double station meteors were recorded by more than one camera in the cluster. The effects of weather conditions on camera productivity are discussed. The distribution of single and double station meteor counts observed for the years 2005 and 2006 and calibrated for weather conditions are presented.
ABSTRACTA rare outburst of the Aurigid meteor shower was predicted to occur on 2007 September 1 at 11:36 ± 20 min ut due to Earth's encounter with the one-revolution dust trail of long-period comet C/1911 N1 (Kiess). The outburst was predicted to last ∼1.5 h with peak zenithal hourly rate of ∼200 h−1, which is ∼20 times higher than the annual Aurigid shower. Three members of Armagh Observatory observed this outburst from the general area of San Francisco, CA, USA, where the shower was anticipated to be best seen. Observed radiant, velocity and activity peak time were consistent with the predictions, whereas the zenithal hourly rate was about half of the predicted value. Five Aurigids were observed by two stations simultaneously, enabling their spatial trajectory to be worked out. The orbits of these double station meteors are in good agreement with that of their parent comet Kiess. The outburst was abundant in bright (−2 to +1 mag) meteors. The first high-altitude Aurigid, with a beginning height of 137.1 km, was recorded.
Armagh Observatory installed a sky monitoring system consisting of two wide angle (90°×52°) and one medium angle (52°×35°)
cameras in July 2005. The medium angle camera is part of a double station setup with a similar camera in Bangor, ∼73km ENE
of Armagh. All cameras use UFOCapture to record meteors automatically; software for off-line photometry, astrometry and double
station calculations is currently being developed. The specifications of the cameras and cluster configuration are described
in detail. 2425 single station meteors (1167, 861 and 806 by the medium-angle and the wide-angle cameras respectively) and
547 double station meteors were recorded during the months July 2005 to Dec 2006. About 212 double station meteors were recorded
by more than one camera in the cluster. The effects of weather conditions on camera productivity are discussed. The distribution
of single and double station meteor counts observed for the years 2005 and 2006 and calibrated for weather conditions are
presented.
Several aspects of computer-based meteor search are discussed. In
particular, the article deals with cheap, high-quality video meteor
cameras, a computer-based meteor search system, and effective
measurement and analysis software for the captured meteors.
A software review is presented covering the topics of video meteor
detection and post-detection analysis. This includes an overview of the
algorithmic techniques and software packages currently available to the
video meteor community.