Scientists in Croatia are using a TeleEye RX video recording server to detect and record images of the meteors.
The images are used to investigate the “uncertain physical phenomena” produced when meteors disintegrate.
The young scientists are investigating the break-up of the meteors and the “coincidence” of changes in the electrostatic field on the ground and in the upper atmosphere.
The TeleEye RX364 – primarily used in security surveillance and alarm verification – is connected to modified low-lux black and white cameras at Tican Astonomical Observatory.
Meteor occurrence triggers video motion detection in the automatic system and the scientists receive images frame by frame via a LAN at the observatory. The images are recorded locally for up to seven days for analysis.
Because the surveillance equipment has made the research “more efficient” the Croatian Meteor Network now plans to use TeleEye RX at other locations both for telescope assistance and security.
The observatory – a successor of Visnjan Astronomical Observatory – researches ‘near Earth objects’ and other solar system bodies and develops educational methods.
It has discovered more than 1400 asteroids and two comets.
