Leonids '01 recording with a Watec-902H and wide angle auto-iris lens
 
yKChia Nov 26 01 Rev 1.2
     

 
   I first tried out a watec 902H and a 3.8 mm f/0.8 auto-iris lens 89 x 69 degree FOV lens on a tripod in desert camp of Jordan (1999). The result was pretty interesting - at UT 02 hrs -just two hours before peak then I recorded a total of 35+ Leonids in slightly half an hour. Encouraged by the low light detectability of this simple set-up I repeated this year November 19 Leonids in Bohyunsan Optical Astronomical Observatory,Korea with a similar ccd and lens. This time the video was recorded using a Digital 8 Sony video walkman GV-D800E running on 1-hour duration in LP mode. Upon my return from Korea I spent some time watching and counting the meteors in a high resolution b/w 1 minute bin count detected by watec-902H montior. In total I had recorded a minimum of SIX HUNDRED & THIRTEEN (613) meteors in just 1.88 hrs effective hours. The 'one-minute' bin was depicted in the graph attached here. There are spikes where high counts are seen momentarily. [The red line indicate the cumulative counts.] Despite missing data in three periods the overall envelope indicate a broad plateau at least for the BRIGHT meteors brighter than mag 1.0. To achieve a lower detection magnitude, another longer focal length lens could be used. My brand new 25mm f/0.90 Avenir TV lens and watec-902H had a LM Of ~+8.0 and FOV of 13 x 8 degree. I used this pair for train spotter. Too bad the Li-ion battery of this recorder failed which prevented me from recording extended hours. In this short duration tape a torrents of faint meteors at burst rate 1 per second was seen accompanying the brighter one.
 
   
( under construction) First trial of Meteor Train using video - Avenir 25mm & watec 902H  
( under construction) How the Canon T-70 Array stack up against watec.[ hint : no fight]  
HOME