(meteorobs) All sky cameras

[Ed Majden]

George:
	Depending on how well you have focused the camera it should record  
fireballs brighter than -3.0 magnitude.  At a good dark sky site you  
may get fainter, perhaps minus 2.0 magnitude for a moving object.   
With Vega at zenith you should be able to use this star to adjust  
your focus.   The prime purpose of this network as I understand it is  
to record fireballs that are likely to drop a meteorite or have the  
possibility to do so.  This is probably a meteor of -5.0 magnitude or  
brighter.  Bright Shower meteors will not drop a meteorite as their  
velocity is too high and they burn up at somewhat high altitudes.   
The average velocity of a meteor, meteorite dropping fireball is  
around 17 km/sec.  Meteor velocity at the end point is in the order  
of 3-6 km/sec.  This varies of course, as to what the meteorite is  
made of.  Iron meteorites should have better survivability in tact  
where stones often break up.
Ed Majden
Courtenay, B.C. Canada

 From a CTV report:

BUZZARD COULEE, Sask. -- The brilliant fireball that lit up the sky over
Alberta and Saskatchewan last fall has set a Canadian record for the
number of meteorites recovered from a single fall.

A University of Calgary scientist leading a search for the space
fragments says more than 1,000 have been discovered in fields near
Lloydminster on the Alberta-Saskatchewan boundary.

Alan Hildebrand adds thousands more remain to be recovered now that snow
has melted and the search has resumed.

The previous record of 700 pieces was set after a meteor hit the ground
in central Alberta in 1960.

Hildebrand says searchers are finding dozens of meteorites a day.

So far more than 400 pieces have been found and hundreds more have been
discovered by area residents and searchers not attached to the
University of Calgary's effort.



On 12-May-09, at 6:10 AM, drobnock wrote:

> A question to those using all sky cameras to observe fireballs,  
> what is
> the visual  limiting magnitude of the camera? And what is the limit of
> the meteor or fireball that can be recorded?
>
> Also for Thomas Ashcraft, for the VLF/VHF/Visual recording you have
> presented, what is the limiting visual magnitude of your system?
>
> Thank you,
>
> George John Drobnock
>
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