(meteorobs) Lens question for meteors

Chris Peterson clp at alumni.caltech.edu
Fri Jun 13 14:29:46 EDT 2014


Outside of some serious distortion issue, I'd generally define "better" 
in this application as faster, i.e. a smaller focal ratio, since that 
will result in increased sensitivity (not so much as replacing your 
color sensors with monochrome, however).

Otherwise, it's always a tradeoff between FOV and sensitivity. Look at a 
smaller bit of the sky, you'll see deeper. But you'll miss meteors 
outside your field. So it all comes down to your project goals.

Keep in mind that a digital camera like yours offers a major advantage 
over conventional video in that you can mix both long and short 
exposures. That means you can operate at 20-30 fps for collecting 
meteors, but follow a detection up with a several second exposure to get 
an astrometric calibration frame. You don't actually need stars in each 
detection set.

Chris

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

On 6/13/2014 12:10 PM, Michael Boschat wrote:
>
> Hi Chris:
>
>> What sky coverage do you want? With a 1/3" sensor, you need a 1.3 mm FL
>> lens to get 180° on the long axis.
>
> With the one I have it covers they say 150 degrees.  it is the 2.1mm 1/3"
>
>
>> What is the problem with the 2.1 mm lens that came with the camera?
>
> Nothing .. I just thought a better type lens of 2.8-12 or 6-12mm would give closer sky areas and
>   better meteors to capture maybe +2 or so. I just see these images online and my one I can see
> just brighter stars and not the full parts of the constellations like the others.
>
>
> Mike



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