[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
(meteorobs) Ready for mobile Leonid Expedition
Hi All!
Members of the Dutch Meteor Society (http://www.dmsweb.org) are almost
ready with their preparations for the Leonids 2000 Expedition.
All mobile equipment (Dell Laptop + Nokia 6150) has been tested and is
functioning correctly in order to provide you with live reports from our
observing location somewhere in western Europe which is at this moment
still completely unknown.
We have a large number of weather information sources on-line available at
"http://home.wanadoodot nl/dms/general/weather.html" and of course our
well-known senoir meteorologist Jacob Kuiper of the Dutch National Weather
Service.
Visual observers are Koen Miskotte, Marco Langbroek, Marc de Lignie, Jos
Nijland, Arnold Tukkers, Rita Verhoef and Rob Sanders who will be supported
by photo- and video-equipment.
The photo-equipment of Robert Haas and Casper ter Kuile consists of twenty
Canon T-70 + 1.8/50 mm optics at each station. More technical information
regarding the camera setups can be found at
"http://delpsurf.www.cistrondot nl/haas_array.html" and
"http://home.wanadoodot nl/dms/photo/crtk_array.html". We will be
photographing from 0 to 6 UT and use exposure times of 10 minutes at
maximum. In case skyconditions are worse we will start photographing at 2
UT and shorten the exposuretime to 7 minutes. Kodak Tri-X is used and
developed to about 800 ASA. The 1.8 lenses will be stopped down to 2.8. The
array's of Canon T-70's are fully automated through the use of the Canon
Command Back 70. A powergenerator will provide energy for the rotating
shutter and the heating of the lenses and camera's.
The video-equipment of Carl Johannink and Casper ter Kuile consists of a
Canon 1.2/50 mm aspherical objective followed by the AEG XX1400 Image
Intensifier and a Panasonic digital camcorder NV-DA1. Romke Schievink at
the second station has a similar video image intensifier setup. To be able
to point these two systems at the correct aimingpoint 100 km high in the
sky the Q-richt program of Marc de Lignie is used at the laptop.
At this moment all DMS-members are anxiously awaiting each new
weatherforecast. Form Jacob Kuiper we learned the prediction models are
quite stable now, that is the results of the ensemble predictions do differ
only by small margins. In US election speak: to close to call. In fact this
seems bad for the US but good for us observers: it means the weather is
predictable quite well. Still we have to wait before final decisions are
made which way to go to observe the Leonids. Presumably tuesday-evening
and/or wednesday will be highly important moments for the DMS Leonids 2000
crash-expedition.
We will keep you informed on what is going on above us in the sky all the
way down to our observing location where-ever that will be.
You are invited to visit the DMS-website at http://www.dmsweb.org often as
these will be updated regularly.
Best wishes and clear skies to you all!
Casper.
Casper ter Kuile, Dutch Meteor Society (DMS)
Akker 145, NL-3732 XD, De Bilt, The Netherlands
Tel. +(31)-30-2203170, Fax. +(31)-30-2202695, XOIP: 0208699068
GSM-BEN: +(31)-6-24242445, GSM-KPN: +(31)-6-20247982
E-mail_1: casper.ter.kuile@wanadoodot nl
E-mail_2: casper.ter.kuile@dmsweb.org
E-mail_3: webmaster@dmsweb.org
DMS website: http://www.dmsweb.org
Mirrorsite: http://home.wanadoodot nl/dms
To UNSUBSCRIBE from the 'meteorobs' email list, use the Web form at:
http://www.tiacdot net/users/lewkaren/meteorobs/subscribe.html