A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO THE CROATIAN METEOR NETWORK

A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO THE CROATIAN METEOR NETWORK Željko Andreić and Damir Šegon zandreic@rgn. hr, damir. segon@pu. htnet. hr http: //www. astro. hr/hmm/index. html MOD WS 03: Željko Andreić and Damir Šegon - A short introduction to the Croatian Meteor Network

Contents 1. introduction 2. evolution of video network 3. software development 4. publication of results 5. educational role of CMN 6. future plans MOD WS 03: Željko Andreić and Damir Šegon - A short introduction to the Croatian Meteor Network 2

Introduction - hardware: 1004 x surveilance camera - 1004 x B/W surveilance camera (1/3" EXView HAD CCD chip) sensitivity 3 m. Lux at F/1, 2 modification (by Filip Lolić): gain is fixed at about 90% of maximal lens: 4 mm F/1, 2 with FOW of 48 x 62 deg. run at 25 fps MOD WS 03: Željko Andreić and Damir Šegon - A short introduction to the Croatian Meteor Network 3

Introduction - hardware 2: transparent dome and light shield MOD WS 03: Željko Andreić and Damir Šegon - A short introduction to the Croatian Meteor Network 4

Introduction 3: camera control software - freeware program Sky Patrol (written by Mark Vornhusen) is used to capture images from our cameras. - it works with almost any image capture card. - old PCs (pentium 500 MHz and up) with Win 98 SE and up to the Win-XP are suitable. - images are integrated for 1 min (1500 frames), but as a diference to still CCD images, exact times of each pixel brigtening are stored, allowing to reconstruct events during the exposure. MOD WS 03: Željko Andreić and Damir Šegon - A short introduction to the Croatian Meteor Network 5

Introduction 4: limiting magnitude 3 to 4 comet Holmes Per 1 m 8 Per 3 m 8 Per 2 m 9 Per 4 m 0 Pleiades MOD WS 03: Željko Andreić and Damir Šegon - A short introduction to the Croatian Meteor Network 6

Most cameras are opereted by pupils+teacher groups - Pupils operate the camera under a teacher or a mentor supervision. - they also do first data reduction (data archiving and meteor extraction). - the final analysis is done by the scientific team of the network. MOD WS 03: Željko Andreić and Damir Šegon - A short introduction to the Croatian Meteor Network 7

Camera Wherelocations: is Croatia? MOD WS 03: Željko Andreić and Damir Šegon - A short introduction to the Croatian Meteor Network 8

Camera locations: Situation March 2010: 22 cameras MOD WS 03: Željko Andreić and Damir Šegon - A short introduction to the Croatian Meteor Network 9

Sky coverage (at h=100 km) 100 km MOD WS 03: Željko Andreić and Damir Šegon - A short introduction to the Croatian Meteor Network 10

Software development 1: - our export data format is UFOorbit R 80 input format. MOD WS 03: Željko Andreić and Damir Šegon - A short introduction to the Croatian Meteor Network 11

Software development 2: - End of 2008: Peter Gural wrote MTP_detector, a software that extracts meteor trails from our images with sub-pixel precision. - MTP_detector is now used for all meteor trail detection and extraction from CMN images. The extracted data are afterwards checked and archived manually. The procedure takes 5 -15 min/night/station. MOD WS 03: Željko Andreić and Damir Šegon - A short introduction to the Croatian Meteor Network 12

Software development 3: - beginning of 2009: Damir Šegon wrote a new astrometry/photometry software for astrometric calibration of images based on all stars recorded during the whole night (typ. 10 000 stars) MOD WS 03: Željko Andreić and Damir Šegon - A short introduction to the Croatian Meteor Network 13

Publication of results: - most interesting data are published regularily in WGN, work on complete data base in progress. MOD WS 03: Željko Andreić and Damir Šegon - A short introduction to the Croatian Meteor Network 14

Educational role of CMN: regular local meetings MOD WS 03: Željko Andreić and Damir Šegon - A short introduction to the Croatian Meteor Network 15

What next? - build and test new instruments: MOD WS 03: Željko Andreić and Damir Šegon - A short introduction to the Croatian Meteor Network 16

What next 2? - recording of non-meteor natural phenomena MOD WS 03: Željko Andreić and Damir Šegon - A short introduction to the Croatian Meteor Network 17

What next 3? - build a database of meteor recordings and putting it on-line. - build a database of meteor orbits. - enlarge scientific team (still 2 persons, very limited time). - wait for meteorite falls and try to retrieve them. MOD WS 03: Željko Andreić and Damir Šegon - A short introduction to the Croatian Meteor Network 18

Thank you for your attention! Questions? MOD WS 03: Željko Andreić and Damir Šegon - A short introduction to the Croatian Meteor Network 19