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 Updated June 26 
'05

 

 Meteors via UFOCaptureV2
  Background.  I started to evaluate  Sonotaco's  wonderful directX based meteor detection and capturing software UFOCapture  and at the same time dabbled in the accompanying meteor analysis software UFOAnalyser April 2005. 
Features ( not exhaustive)  Impression/My inputs  Remark
 - Support 1394/ DV, USB2 captured devices - no need for proprietary capture hardware I use VideoHome's  USB 2.0 Video Grabber $90. Now I owned two for the 2 systems. full frame needs P4 2.6 min, the P2 in my testing seems Ok but leaves meteors in breaks.
-  save meteor in AVI   120 GB 7200 rpm hard disk, typical 50-120 Mb per events (eg birds....).  A much larger hard disk will be ideal. say good bye to VCR tape & remote xtroller - may be for fireball wide angle recording use.
- Date/time stamp bitmap/video frames (pc clock?) Even the video frames are time stamped - how nice.. Dream wishlist is to use DV timecode via DirectShow.
- start and stop recording automatically   Good for unattended 24/7 remote operation - FTP build in stopping function is good. No need to waste hard disk space 
UFO Analyser - matching FOV to reference map( even works in 75mm lens) , plotting of meteors, save plots in bitmap, auto shower association... many more for me to find out the assumption is the meteor trail must be continuous. 
6/25/2005 Clear sky returned, around 11 pm 09 , while testing the UFO system#2 and shortly I hit the <REC> button to acquire starting video reference frame when a slow meteor appeared and exited the FOV.  A wmv compressed video. ( 295Kb) 
06/06/05   Another tiny fireball left an  interesting 'bacterial-like' footprint. Deinterlaced single video frame revealed the unmistaken tail.  Watch the video of this.  (901Kb)
6/09/05   A long trail meteor stream towards Antares in Scorpion (video  wmv) 2.6 Mb
6/14/05      Sky get clouded out.  Only two meteors were detected since 0 hrs.  But one of them was a gem-  A  tiny round meteor ( with barely visible tiny tail) extruded from not far from theta Oph for a mere 1.13 degree. I shall call this a fire fly meteor. (1.91 Mb wmv video file)
6/15/05  Early AM Grus region - a  bright swift meteor ( deinterlaced still stack) shone through the clouds . Persistent 'train' created the thin connecting line. View video   wmv file. (2.6 Mb) 

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