Double‐Station Automatic Video Observation of the Meteors

Abstract

The double station observation of the meteors by means of sensitive image intensifier technique started at the Ondrejov Observatory 10 years ago. The sensitivity of such instrumentation allows detection of the meteors down to masses of fractions of gram. Moreover, video technique provides us with a time resolution of the meteor events. On the other side, the precision of the video data is lower in comparison with the photographic data. We are introducing technological progress on the project—replacing of the S-VHS camcorders with gigabite, ethernet cameras and making the whole process of video observation automatic.

Meteor automatic imager and analyzer: current status and preprocessing of image data

“…1) which is described in details in our previous papers 6,8 . Two computers are used to capture and preprocess video sequences from the two cameras.…”

“…Two computers are used to capture and preprocess video sequences from the two cameras. The preprocessed sequences from the two PCs are then sent over the Internet to the high capacity HDD array for storage and further astronomical analysis 6 .…”

“…Design and results of measurements of basic electro-optical characteristics of the particular components and the overall performance of the system were presented in our previous papers 6,8 . These characteristics are briefly overviewed in the following paragraphs.…”

“…There are many properties of the meteors possible to investigate using the video records and subsequent signal analysis 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 . This paper describes an evolution of the current project MAIA replacing the aging analog solution with the new design where digital cameras are used 6,8 . In the first part of the paper the design of the MAIA system is reviewed 6 and its basic opto-electronic parameters are presented 8 .…”

“…This paper describes an evolution of the current project MAIA replacing the aging analog solution with the new design where digital cameras are used 6,8 . In the first part of the paper the design of the MAIA system is reviewed 6 and its basic opto-electronic parameters are presented 8 . The second part of the paper is focused on the detailed measurement and evaluation of the opto-electronic conversion function 7 and noise parameters 9 which are crucial characteristics for further preprocessing of image data.…”