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Post by Bill W on Dec 3, 2008 12:07:37 GMT
To those still watching don't forget to keep a look out for the forthcoming Geminid meteors shower. The peak is on the night of the 13th/14th December. Unfortunately right on full moon, or nearly so but it should still be possible to catch the brighter ones. Remember some of that meteor stuff just might end up being re-cycled through the atmosphere giving us some more bits to form NLC! cheers, Bill.
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Post by markt on Dec 6, 2008 21:06:56 GMT
Thanks for that Bill. Should be getting the first sign of those Geminids nowish, like you say its a full moon at maximum so not the best of the year... On a positive note we must be 1/2 wayish through the 'lull' of the NLC season this time of year - time will pass quickly and before we know it we'll be watching the next season of NLCs - maybe some of those will be seeded by geminid debris? *Edit - I was out in the early hours of the morning observing saturn when the local church clock began to strike 3. As it did I pulled my eye away from the scope to look at the sky as a whole. As the 3rd chime went, a Geminid, roughly mag -1 / -2 flew out of Gemini, through Auriga and into Perseus - was a beautiful sight in the cold, crisp early hours sky, and was glad to have been distracted by the church bells! ;D *
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Post by Bill W on Dec 8, 2008 13:53:40 GMT
The past few nights have offered up some great meteor "observing". There is something magical about image motion capture software. Switch on the camera, power up the PC and go to bed, marvellous! Below are a couple of nice sporadics caught by my system. There are other things stirring in the wee hours which trigger the system. I think this was an owl... In three nights I've caught 59 meteors in total. When I think of the film I've wasted in the past 20+ years and photographed barely a handful. All those Lubitels and Praktica's are now on their way to the big camera shop in the sky...
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Post by markt on Dec 8, 2008 22:06:58 GMT
That seems to be a pretty impressive motion capture system you have running there. Is it something you've put together yourself or a commercial one? How does it work? You've got me intruiged now!
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Post by Bill W on Dec 10, 2008 12:46:07 GMT
It's all off the shelf stuff. It's the software that's brilliant. When I first heard of it I was a bit skeptical as it was called UFO Capture. However when I investigated further it turned out to be the business. There is another package called Met Rec but that needed a particular type of frame grabber whereas UFO capture is much more flexible and I use it with a USB frame grabber connected to one of the video camera's I use for NLC stuff in the summer months. There is a free version I used for a while, then I bought the license for the full version and it's worth every penny! Another 25 meteors last night an 18 the night before! I caught an absolute cracking meteor this morning at 0639. I'll put some of the best recent ones on my web page in due course but if you want to see some video of the 2006 Leonids and a few others have a look at userweb.elec.gla.ac.uk/b/bward/leonids.htm
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Post by mherbert on Dec 14, 2008 16:15:08 GMT
This software looks really interesting, and I think I shall purchase a copy.
A question around video camera's to use for this and NLCS, I need some guidance on where I should look for getting one. Also what are your recommendations?
I live in an area of very low light polution and think it would be interesting to set up an automatic camera.
Mike
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Post by Bill W on Dec 16, 2008 11:47:21 GMT
Hi mherbert,
A good webcam with the right software seems to be the best choice for an automatic system.
I just use what I've accumulated over the years from other astronomy interests.
There are now mega pixel webcams and I might get one of these to experiment with next year.
The problem is that there are so many variables in the observing conditions it's almost impossible to define a system in absolute terms.
There have been times when me and Tom have been at one of our regular sites there will end up being 4, 5 or 6 different camera's all pointing at the same clouds!
cheers, Bill.
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