Christou, A.

Elgner, S.

Flohrer, J.

Margonis, A.

Oberst, J.

Tost, W.

English

Institute of Transport Research:Publications

During the Perseids meteor stream of 2009 we had carried outobservations in Austria and Greece using SPOSH (Smart PanoramicOptical Sensor Head) cameras from 10th August to 14th August, 2009.The SPOSH camera (developed at DLR and Jena Optronik under acontract to ESA/ESTEC) is well suited for meteor observations becauseof itʼs high technical capabilities, and due to a highly sensitive back-illuminated CCD and its wide field of view of 120° x 120°  (170° x 170°over the image diagonal) provided by a custom-made optical system.To minimize the influences of bad weather and to maximize the chancesof a successful campaign, we had established observing sites in twodifferent regions of Europe. Two cameras were brought to Greece andset up on the Mainalon and Parnon mountains, with the support of themembers of the Astronomical Union of Sparta. Two more SPOSHcameras were operated in Austria at Gahberg and KanzelhˆheObservatory. Students from the Technical University of Berlin duringtheir internship at DLR joined the campaign at Gahberg Observatory.The main goals were- to find orbit parameters for a large set of meteors- to identify the individual meteor (stream member, sporadic)- to opt imize observat ion and data analysis techniquesWe acquired 120.000+ Images and identified 2500+ meteors in our data.For the number of meteors anyone can make a simple statistical analysis.One can make an intuitive guess that whether a meteor is a stray oneor belongs to a main stream. This is not as easy as one would expect:Fig.3 shows all meteor trails for a time period of one hour. Meteors markedin red might be a member of the perseid stream. Without further informationthere is no way of learning and conforming more about a meteorʼsproperties i.e. its trajectory.To identify a meteor we calculate its orbit parameters (1) and compareit to the pre-established orbital status of a known meteor stream or withtheir parental bodies.For the determination of the orbital parameters of the optically capturedmeteors we use images those were acquired at the same time from thetwo different observation sites.From these parameters we can identify and count stream members. Wecompare our obtained  orbit parameters of the individual meteor with theknown orbits for comets. Thus we were able to identify a number of alpha-Capricornids and delta-Aquariids in our images.Fig. 2 shows the distribution of meteors captured during the 2009 Perseidcampaign derived from the analysis of our orbit parameters. More resultsFig.1: The same bright meteor at stations Mainalon (left) and Parnon (right).  11. August 2009           From Triangulation one can calculate orbit parameters for the meteor in a straightforward wayResults from the Perseid Campaign 2009 with SPOSH camerasS.Elgner1, A. Christou2, A. Margonis1,3, W. Tost1, J. Oberst1,3, and J. Flohrer11) Institute of Planetary Research, German Aerospace Center (DLR), 2) Armagh Observatory, United Kingdom, 3) Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin)Fig. 5-9 are derived from the large numbers of ourcalculated orbital data. For the first time  we could measureand analyse information about meteor properties like:Starting height, ending height and entrance angles.Also we can give results for apparent and heliocentricvelocity of the meteors. These values are more or lessexpected, which prove the authenticity,  correctness andstability of our programs. Fig. 10-11 show the propagationFig.2:  Data derived from orbit calculation Fig.3:  Overlay of meteor images.           Colors by educated guess onlyFig.4: Illustrates the ZHR for the 11th and 12th August 2009for observing sites Mainalon and Parnon. The used populationindex is 2.6. A view correct ion factor of 2.9 had to be appliedfor the Parnon data due to partially covered filed-of-view.The obtained values are in good agreement to the datapublished by the International Meteor Organization (IMO).URL:  www.imo.netFig.9 Fig.10 Fig.11AcknowledgementThe campaign enjoyed the dedicated support by the following meteor enthusiasts:Dr. Joachim Flohrer, Wilfried Tost, Klaus-Dieter Matz, Stephan Elgner, Rolf Schrödter, Benjamin Grzesik, Anastasios Margonis,Nicole Güldemeister, Apostolos Christou and Prof. Jürgen Oberst. We thank Mr. Filimon (Sternwarte Gahberg) and theAstronomical Union of Sparta for their friendly acceptance and support of the campaign. J. Ehrich (Jena-Optronik) and D.Koschny (ESA/ESTEC) deserve thanks for providing their SPOSH Cameras for the campaign. Additional support by AndreasKnöfel, Hakan Svedhem, Aum Mishra, Theodora Okoye, Kevin Oluoch and Prabim Pokhrel.

Results from the Perseid Campaign 2009 with SPOSH cameras

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