(meteorobs) Advice for capturing daytime visual fireballs?

[Chris Peterson]

In general, detecting daytime fireballs is problematic. Fireballs have a 
low IR output, so you definitely don't want an IR filter. Fireballs 
bright enough to be seen against the daytime sky are pretty rare (mag -8 
or brighter), of course. I think the only filter that is likely to be 
helpful is a polarizer, which will increase contrast against the sky 
(but only in certain areas). Overall, however, you're probably better 
off with no filters at all. I've observed Iridium flares with my video 
allsky camera, and they are most easily seen without any filtering. This 
also required using a manual iris and finding a narrow balance between 
saturation and detection.

Chris

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

On 10/17/2012 10:00 AM, Thomas Ashcraft wrote:
> Some years ago I acquired a dark reddish colored plastic dome for my
> all-sky camera. I am not sure if it had infrared filtering qualities but
> at least it made more contrast in the sunlit sky.  Using continuous
> video recording I conducted an all-sky visual search for daylight
> fireballs in conjunction with my radio array. When there was a large
> radio meteor reflection on my charts I would go my video recording and
> check for any sort of meteor flash or streak.  After a few months of
> daily observing I never detected any visual daytime meteors so I ended
> that experiment.
>
> I may try again for daytime visual meteors.
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions?
>
> For example:  Is it possible to use something like a HOYA #72 red filter
> on an all sky lens using a camera such as a Watec 902H2?
>
> Thank you in advance for any replies.
>
> Thomas Ashcraft  -  Heliotown  -  New Mexico