Meteor Camera ...DIY

More fun with Meteors......
I have this new DMK51 camera that I have been using to capture comets with the ED80 telescope or a 26mm lens, lots of  fun, see Panstarrs blog entries. The camera is connected to a tablet via USB and the other USB port  is connect to a 1 Tb drive.

 So, the concept here is big sky imaging using small equipment that can be easily setup on the car roof at a dark location. No need to do tracking just yet. Attaching, a small fish eye lens to the DMK has proved interesting. I can see a few satellites, and the occasional small meteor. Here's a good one on the edge of the frame from a few nights ago, Lyrid ?? may be.

 The software that comes with the camera allows you to make 100 frame AVI's. I have to manually look through each avi to find the good frames with meteors, or satellites. I am quite lazy about this method, and wanted an auto triggered frame grab when a bright meteors happen. The processing.org software I have been using seemed promising again. It has video capture and play back functions. Also image processing functions. Could it do the job?

Well, yes as it turns out. Under windows 7 the camera is detected, and frames can be saved on a trigger event. So, I made a little program using the processing examples as a starter. Using a laser pointer as a meteor simulator. I can track the brightness of the light and see it at speed.  It has a grid and a compass the rotates so that north setting can be made correct.

One of the tricks that makes this work is that the DMK camera remembers its last settings, so you can set the exposure time to get the best frame rate. I used an exposure of 1/6 second and gain and gamma set to 255. Then turn of the DMK Icapture software and let processing.org take over the camera.

 I will try it out when the clouds clear away in the next few days. Hope it works......then i share the code, as i did with the radio meteor software.   8)

Wahooo.... its working , and can detect car lights pass along the edge of the FOV. This AVI has mostly clouds, so the next clear night will be the big test......

Here is the code for this version, DIY-MeteorCamera , copy the text into a new processing sketch and run.
You should see a list of available cameras. Make sure you can see your DMK camera. Change the code at this location,
     // The camera can be initialized directly using an element
    // from the array returned by list():
    cam = new Capture(this, cameras[29]);  // <<<<<
    //29 name=The Imaging Source Europe GmbH DMK 51AU02.AS,size=1600x1200,fps=12
    // set gamma = 255 set exposure = 1/6 sec set gain = 255

It should also work with built in  cameras or most any that can be detected in the list, you will need to tweak some of the code to make it look good for your camera.  Have fun..........8)

Upate 20130430 - Cars, Planes, but no meteor trains.....there's never a bright fireball when you want one....tracking bright aircraft ok... may have a big problem with a bright moon...hmm ..

Update 20130503 - While waiting for a meteor, i put the 26mm lens back on the camera and took a quick few frames of Crux, good depth for 1 sec frames.

Update 20130510 - No good meteors detected, so a few more tests reveal good satellite tracks.

Attached the camera to an old ETX90 mount I had lying around not being used. Now, I can track the imager  all over the sky. 

Long Tail Comets

Update 20130401 - Great Comets depend on your Point Of View within your Field Of View.
A collection of STEREO comet views......

The wide FOV of the STEREO satellites have captured several comets that exhibit long and dynamic tails. This is comet C/2007 F1 LONEOS ..... more to follow..

This is Machholz 96P, showing a long Ion tail and a wedge shaped Dust tail.

Comet C/2011 L4 Panstarrs

Update - 20130404- Panstarrs was detected in STEREO HI1A roll data images on 20130319 3 days after leaving HI1B imager FOV.

image data courtesy of STEREO/SECCHI/NASA/NRL

Update - 20130320 - Ground base images with longer exposures are now showing more of the tail structures that have been seen in STEREO HI1B images.

image credits to Michael Jager and STEREO/SECCHI/NASA/NRL.

Update - 20130316 Tail dynamics of Panstarrs ..
..STEREO HI1B Panstarrs tails avi...
Update - 20130315 - The Stereo images for 20130312 are publicly available.
Panstarrs just keeps getting better. The tail is now visible in Hi2B imager

Update - 20130314 - Panstarrs enters the STEREO HI1B imager FOV on 20130309. The tail details have evolved into the following structures. The tail length is now beyond 10degrees.

20130311 - C/2011 L4 Panstarrs in STEREO HI1B

Image data courtesy of STEREO/SECCHI/NRL/NASA. processed with ImageJ.
Remember McNaught from 2007....

Update - 20130306 - Some treatments of the 1sec avi data using imageJ.

Update - 20130305 - This is probably the last effort with Panstarrs for a few days. Finally got to put the ED80mm and DMK51AS on to the comet head. I let it drift across the FOV taking 1sec images
Still to work over the set of avi's. Here is a first look at the data...

Update 20130304 - A view from the local high ground looking west ....

C/2011 L4 PanSTARRS - 20130304 - Melbourne

then east...

Looking East to Melboune CBD

Update 20130301 - More wide FOV of C/2011 L4 PanSTARRS using a DMK51As and 26MM lens.

Update 201302234 - Now in evening skies of Melbourne, 10 sec exposure. (click for larger view)

Picture Info - CamModel Canon EOS 450D Shooting Date/Time 23/02/2013 9:08:06 PM
Exposure  10 sec  Aperture 5.6 ISO 1600 Lens EF75-300mm f/4-5.6 Focal Length 75.0mm

Comet C/2012 T5 Bressi

Currently seen in STEREO HI1A imager is Comet C/2012 T5 Bressi, thought to be disintegrating.
Mag estimates varied before it made its closest approach to the sun. It is now leaving but still within 1 Au from the sun.

More Lemmon squeezing...

Update 20130303 - Some better views of Lemmon tail, using the ED80mm and DKM51 and the DSLR with a 300mm lens, both tracking with the telescope.

Better tail views achieved with DMK51AS 99x10sec images

DMK51 and DSLR images

C/2012 F6 Lemmon 30 sec  @ 300mm DSLR

Sum of B/W images again

Update 20130220 - An image of C/2012 F6 via Itelescope T9 90sec exp some imagej work.

Now that I know where C/2012 F6 Lemmon is. I have been zooming in using a DSLR and my Telescope. Unfortunately my night sky is not dark enough to get the long flowing blue Ion tails.

Lemmon closing in on 47 TUC

Trying to catch the comets tail....

Second night getting closer.

 Eta Carina rose high enough in the southern sky to get this processed image...


ETA Carina ..sum of 20sec B/W images

Little green comets

A simulation of a Green coma comet showing a blue Ion tail randomly affected by solar wind.

Sim Green Comet processed pictures....

Finding a Lemmon...

Trying to get some comet images using a DMK51 and a 26mm lens seems like a fun thing to do at the moment. There is some madness in this method, or visa versa. I had tried without success to get comet C/2012 T5 Bressi, it is to faint and my skies are not dark enough. But I put this test image into Flickr astrometry.net, wide FOV bressi it shows that the FOV I have with this lens is about 15x10 degrees. This means I have a big ball park to catch some thing reasonably bright.

The next good night I tried for a brighter comet, the problem being it is on the lower southern limits of my horizon, just above the garage roof. Pointed the camera at the area indicated patch of sky. The result was good. A summed image of 27x20sec frames shows comet C/2012 F6 Lemmon in the right spot, according to CDC charts.

Update - 20130127 - Using Th ED80mm and DMK51 , after some hunting around, as my scope was not properly aligned. I found C/2012 F6 Lemmon as a faint fuzzy. Got 50x19.472sec images with the gain set at 150 and gamma set at 100. A summed image from these frames is here, some ImageJ pixel pushing has been done to bring out the comet. Moving images below..