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Re: (meteorobs) Matrox Meteor
Hi Malcolm:
Thank's for your prompt reply. Sirko recommended the Matrox Meteor card
to me sometime ago. As you know, he has developed the software for it so it
is probably the card to go with. My original intention was to hook it up to
a Sandia Labs Video All-sky camera. Monitoring the VHS tapes during non
shower periods is worse than watching paint dry. We thought a system could
be developed that could flag meteor detections automatically. Right now we
rely on fireball reports from the public to provide the approximate time of
an event. It is just too time consuming to monitor each tape. I do it
during shower periods to see the number of detections. The Sandia all-sky
detects meteors of around -2.0 magnitude and brighter.
As for spectroscopy, I normaly use film cameras. I have a 4X5 F-2.9 - 8
inch focal length Aero Camera fitted with an objective prism and a 2 1/4
square F-2.8 - 75mm fitted with a precision blazed 600 g/mm transmission
grating. The grating will be moved over to a recently acquired Hasselblad
with an F-2.8 - 80 mm lens. I have experimented with thin film type
holographic gratings and have been successful obtaining a spectrum with one.
Holographic gratings are not as efficient as a blazed grating but they cost
a fraction of a precision grating.
I'm just experimenting with my image intensifier. Resolution will not
be nearly as good as film but that is the only way to reach fainter
magnitudes. Professional programs use image orthicons and sec vidicon
tubes. The problem with the image intensifier that I have, is that the
image area is only 25 mm in diameter. This is fine for direct photography
but when you add a dispersive element such as a grating the dispersion can
be wider than the image area on the tube. You therefore miss part of the
spectrum. Measuring the spectrum is difficult because of the poor
resolution. Jiri Borovicka at Ondrejov operates a video system during
shower peaks. He also used video during the Leonid Airborne Expedition.
Have a look at my home page at: http://www.amsmeteors.org/spectro.html
and also
http://astrowww.phys.uvicdot ca/~balam/emo.html
This will give you some idea of what I'm doing. I'm a retired radar
tech formaly RCAF/CAF.
Cheers: Ed
PS. I'm thinking of getting a Power Mac G-3. They have video capture
capability so a capture card may not be needed. The only problem is getting
the appropriate software. I'm not a programmer! Perhaps IRAF running under
Linux could do this. They are coming out with a Mac version, probably this
fall, if things go well.
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