Sbig ALL SKY METEOR CAMERA CLOUD, ALL SKY METEOR CAMERA METEOR User Manual

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ALL SKY CAMERA
CLOUD SENSOR and
METEOR DETECTOR

SBIG has developed a new camera system
designed to watch the skies all night and log
any images with moving objects in them. This
new version of our all sky camera sacrifices
some field of view for sensitivity, and as a
result can detect satellites down to 4th
magnitude, and several meteors a night during
non-meteor shower periods. The field of view
is still a very respectable 90 x 140 degrees.
The is 0.185 degrees per pixel.

The image at right shows the camera in its weatherproof housing. The camera is an uncooled, shutterless
version of the ST-402ME mated to a 2.6 mm focal length F/1.6 CS- mount lens. The box also contains a
USB extender, and a 12 VDC power supply for the camera. The window in the top of the box is an RG­630 red filter designed to dramatically reduce light pollution (and light from the moon) for users in brighter
sites. The window is heated to prevent condensation. The USB extender allows operation up to 150 feet
(50 meters) from the controlling PC.

All Sky / Meteor / Cloud Camera

The sample picture below shows a
typical image from this unit where
a meteor was captured. The
camera was running with 10
second exposure times.
REMOVE/SOFT, if desired. SBIG
has written special software to
automatically take images all night,
compare each image with the
previous one, and scan the image
for linear features typical of a
meteor or satellite.

The software uses a Hough
transform to find linear features,
plus other tests. Each image with

A meteor trail is seen as a streak near the

milky way in the center of the frame. Very

faint clouds are also detected on the left.

airport. The software also allows the images to be easily viewed later to eliminate false alarms.Compared
to our previous All Sky camera, this camera does not cover the entire sky, however, with the previous all­sky camera covering a full hemisphere often meant users would have a streetlight or window in the field of
view, which corrupted the image annoyingly. Also, this data is intended to be useful for triangulating the
height of the meteor, which is difficult near the horizon.

something in it is saved for later
inspection. A filter is available to
cut down on false alarms due to
plane traffic, if you live near an

The system works surprising well when the moon is full, with little loss of sensitivity. It is sensitive to
linear clouds on such nights, such as cirrus or contrails. A side use of this system is therefore watching for

high clouds at night. The unit
can definitely allow one to see
if clouds are present overhead
at night when they are not
visually detectable. The
detection is easier if you live
in an area with modest light
pollution since it lights the
clouds up. If your main
interest is in detecting faint
clouds overhead we can ship
the camera with a clear
window. The picture below
shows an image taken with the
camera of some clouds at night
illuminated by light pollution.
These clouds were fainter than
the Milky Way visually, and
not easy to see.

We have found that running
the system on every clear night is very interesting, particularly knowing that if something significant
happens you will have a record of it. We have caught some fireballs with a prototype version of this unit.
Iridium flashes and satellites are commonly seen. The unit is most useful when a sister camera within a
few miles can be set up so triangulation is possible. Events occruing in the Earth's atmosphere as and the
altitude of earth orbiting satellites can be measured to within a few percent accuracy depending on how far
apart the systems are located. Generally 4 to 10 miles separation is about right for satellites as the cropped
test images below demonstrate. Two Meteor Cameras being operated 7 km (4.36 miles) apart captured the
same Cosmos 1437 Booster. Based on the separation of the observing sites, the Booster's position against
the background stars appears to shift (parallax). By triangulation, it was determined that the Booster was
approximately 150 miles away at the time.

Clouds moving in during the night. These could not be

easily seen visually.

Meteor Cam 1 Meteor Cam 2

< < Separation Between Cameras Approximately 7 km >>