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[OM] Meteor photos

Subject: [OM] Meteor photos
From: Joe Gwinn <joegwinn@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2004 22:42:44 -0400
At 3:27 AM +0200 8/12/04, Listar wrote:
>Subject: [OM] Meteor photos
>Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 09:38:20 -0700
>From: "Scott Gomez" <scott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
>
>I got an inquiry via my web site regarding trying to shoot meteors. I
>don't know the answer, so I was hoping list members might be able to
>help.
>
>Some time ago, as many of you may remember, a list member offered a
>"lightning detector" schematic (and associated printed circuit boards).
>Some of us built them. It's basically a winder trigger that's activated
>by IR from lightning flashes.

It depends both on the brightness and on the rate-of-rise of 
brightness: lightening is both bright and abrupt.  Meteors are 
neither.


>The question I was asked was whether it
>might be a viable means of triggering the camera to photograph meteor
>trails. My suspicion was that it would *not* work (insufficient IR
>intensity), but does anyone actually know?

Your intuition is correct.  It won't work.  That is, unless the 
meteor is very big, which is very rare.  Fortunately.


>Assuming that it would not
>work, is there a way to do the job, or is it best to simply aim near the
>radiant and do long, wide-angle exposures?

That's the traditional approach.  You also get star-trail circles, 
unless the camera is attached to a driven equatorial mount of some 
kind.

I suppose one could use a TV camera and computer to detect meteors 
and generate the trigger, but the beginning of the meteor trail would 
always be lost.

Joe Gwinn


>I'll forward replies.
>
>---
>Scott Gomez
>

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