Multiple close encounter Iridium passes this week

Video sample with similar system: sonotaco.com/sample/etc/m20030827_192520.wmv

That's quite a bright flare Mike! What is its estimated magnitude? And where did you capture that one from?

Just doing a recheck from Heavens Above (I thought I was seeing things for a while), but it looks like there are hardly any evening-time flares at all for the next week! Out of 18 listed for the next 7 days (from this evening), there are only 6 visible in the evening, and all are between 9 and 10pm. Weird...



Must be that time of Earth's angle tilt around the sun according to its position on the ecliptic again...

Hi Seanie
Unfortunately not my work, I provided this link as an illustration as to what may be accomplished by similar video camera set-ups. I think the video clip of an Iridium flare was taken by a chap from a location in Japan with his meteor detection system.
I have my system at testing stage at the moment and hope to have it in a fixed permanent position within the week and possibly adding an additional video camera with a 6mm f0.8 lens shortly.

Clear skies
Mike

A few more samples here (not my work!)
Iridium Flare… sonotaco.com/sample/etc/M20050614_030202.wmv
Fireball (u gota see this!)… sonotaco.com/sample/meteor/m20050320_012752.wmv
UFO?... sonotaco.com/sample/etc/M20031009_185516.wmv

Mike,

I'm be really interested to learn more on your meteor cam.
Mind me asking what imaging device you're using/plan to use?
Where did you manage to get the lenses?

Cheers

Hi Mike, the third video, i have seen this in person, it was three satellites travelling in unison in a straight line! Also i saw 3 sats travellling at the same speed in a perfect triangle and the split up going in completely opposite directions!

Hi Michael,
Many thanks for your questions, I am really new to this area, however I am currently been helped in setting up this system by Tolis Christou at the Armagh Observatory and Robert Cobain, based in Bangor NI. We are just in the middle of trying to determine the correct camera pointing altitude, azimuth for my system so that the same area of sky is monitored by all three stations to determine varied meteor characteristics that happen to fall within our FOV / Location.
I was inspired to jump into this research after myself and David Moore visited Armagh Observatory on a cold winter’s night (on top of the roof) in which Toils was so kind to show us all the equipment and how the system actually works. I plan to work with both AI and IFAS in sharing any data that may be accumulated.

Current hardware equipment I have for this work is…
Watec 902DM2S ½ Inch CCD Video camera, low lux, high resolution 570tvl, SN ratio 52db (Additional Watec camera with 6mm lens to be added shortly)
CBC Computar Aspherical 2.6mm f1.0 fast lens with DC Auto Iris (CS mount)
K-World frame grabber (USB)
30ft cable, BNC to Svideo.
Encased in outdoor security housing (cable managed with 12v internal heater)
Decent spec PC, 2.4 GHz or more, large hard drive recommended as a two second video clip with system operating at full resolution of 720x576 @ 25 fps can take up 50mb of HDD space, this can add up to GBs in one nights run if the night is busy with atmospheric events.

Two standard software packages we use are “UFO capture V2” and “Atom Time Pro” which is fantastic for meteor work and ensuring correct timing of frame rate stamp. UFO capture V2 motion capture software that starts recording on a hard disk drive of a computer from a few seconds before the action/event recognized to a few seconds after the action/event is finished. It generates logs which can be used by additional software which can be used to accurately calculate orbital elements in conjunction with other meteor stations (I believe as of now there are only four such stations in the 32 counties)
The system also captures birds in flight (feathered kind), bats, Aeroplanes, Iridium flares, sorry no Sprites or UFOs yet.

I purchased most of the equipment from UK and US. I suppose “Maplins” or “Peats” may be able to supply the cables, security housing, frame grabber (it was so easy for me to order from the comfort of my computer and not go chasing all around Dublin looking for parts). I did manage to purchase the all important camera from “Space Exploration Ltd” based in Boyle Co. Roscommon.

Hope this helps

Clear skies
Mike

Hi Matthew
Hmm, could it have been spy satellites! There is PROBABLY a lot of technology up there that the general public is unaware of and some perhaps that they are aware of would you agree! Wouldn’t mind catching something like that on video to analyse all the same!