(meteorobs) OT-Possible single station determination of meteor distance.

[stange]

Tossing this bit of thought out....after re-reading Michaelson-Morley 
interferometer stuff.

If two cameras with square CCD's and identicle 4mm lenses were mounted on a 
common platform about 6 feet apart and UNLIKE a range finder which you could 
not adjust in time for a fireball explosion.... those cameras were pre-aimed 
at a small terrestrial light source about 10 miles out and the platform with 
the mounted cameras unchanged were to have their individual composite 
signals combined into a single point of light by inputting into a reversed 
RF-splitter with the output going into a computer frame grabber and 
detection software with the light spot centered in the monitor or the 
software, one could expect detection of a fireball explosion and the 
DISTANCE to that explosion could be measured by the actual displacement 
between the two images in seconds of a degree. The monitor centering is only 
to make room for the different azimuths and elevations the fireball might 
occur. Those spot images can be anywhere on the screen.

Magnification of the "split" image may be necessary to resolve a second of a 
degree. Some correction might be needed for elevations because CCD 
cross-sections are greater than the length or width of a square CCD.

If the fireball occurs ten miles distant... there will be no displacement 
between the spots.
Beyond ten miles the displacement grows proportionally. The cameras and 
platform would need aiming skyward after the "collimation" or calibration of 
the two spot images into one.

YCSentinel
(Skunk Works...or at least smelly)