(meteorobs) Optimized filters for daytime fireballvideo capture?

[Chris Peterson]

Hi Ed-

I mounted a big ring bearing around my camera enclosure, tipped so that it 
was parallel to the equator (that is, adjusted for latitude). On that I had 
a radial wire that stuck out about 0.5 meters, with an L-bend at the end. On 
that I put a plastic film cap (can you still get those? <g>) I used a slow 
motor to friction drive the outer bearing, at one turn per day. This system 
only works if you are not too close to the equator- for that you'd need to 
reset the shadow mask position every night, since it couldn't pass 
underneath the camera.

I made no effort to automatically adjust for the change in the Sun's 
altitude over the year. As it is, it can run for days before the altitude 
changes too much, and all I need to do is slide the film cap up or down the 
wire to adjust for it. Of course, a completely unattended, remote setup 
would need to be more complex.

BTW, I did this for a weather cam project- nothing to do with monitoring 
meteors.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ed Majden" <epmajden at shaw.ca>
To: "Global Meteor Observing Forum" <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Monday, May 25, 2009 2:38 PM
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Optimized filters for daytime fireballvideo 
capture?


> Hi Thomas:
> There are several lines contributing to Fe lines across the spectral
> range, not just a single line.  Singling out a single line would
> reduce the brightness considerably so would be no help.  I would ask
> Chris about how to make an occulting disk for the Sun.  He says this
> is easy to accomplish so I would be interested on how to do this to.
> I wonder how he accounts for the daily change in rising of the Sun
> and the altitude for various seasons.  If this is done you would need
> some sort of program to do this and also reset the occulting disk
> East after the Sun sets, and driving it as the Sun rises in the East.
> Ed