Place holder for now:
WGN 33:5 125-128
Radio detection was used to confirm and supplement the video findings.
Northern Lights Flare of 7 May 2016
The strongest solar storm so far of 2016 hit us Saturday night at 10:48pm and again between 2 to 3am (according to our college meteor camera). The clear starry East Kootenay sky lit up with glowing curtains and spikes that reached a third of the way up from the Northern horizon.
Our meteor cam has some nifty video on it. And I zipped out of town and took some photos. I missed the best at 11pm, but got some shots at 11:45. But I packed up at 1:50 am, too soon. According to the meteor cam, if I had waited until 2:10 I would have got the big proton arc spiral. Later it died down to a green glow to the North that lasted all night. It was as bright outside as though the Moon was up.
Yet just before 2am, the whole North half of the sky was pulsating; with dim patches travelling from North to South, at about 2 cycles per second, like sheet lightning (I was getting a sore neck watching this over Ft. Steele, 15 km out of Cranbrook). Some kind of oscillation involving the trapped charge bouncing back and forth in the ionosphere, at right angles to the Earth’s magnetic field, creating waves of its own local magnetic field. Anyhow, at 2:10 the build-up must have discharged in a nice arc.
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Shot from Ft. Steele hill, facing Northeast over Lakit Mountain. The W of the constellation Cassiopeia (Queen of Ethiopia) just above. Rippling, but just greens, no reds or blues. Photos taken with a Nikon and a 28mm f/2.5 lens, with 6 to 15 second exposures.
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Looking at the Western edge of the glowing cloud, groups of spikes. Perseus in background. Pale traces of a narrow vertical streamer west of that.
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Even Fisher Peak to the East was backlit by rippling bands.
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Pine trees and the Steeples silhouetted from Eager Hill outside of Cranbrook.
7 May 2016: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center has issued a 48 hour magnetic storm watch indicating a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) or a high speed solar wind stream emanating from the Sun may be heading towards Earth. These fast moving charged particles can cause a Northern Lights display.
The current Geomagnetic Activity level (Kp number) is 5.33 — STORM LEVEL, peaking over the Northern BC and Alberta border.
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Fernie had it even better, since they saw blues as well. Facing North from Fernie BC, Cassiopeia above. Sent by Sasha Prystae of Kimberley.
Electrons cause most of the glow. The dim red glow at the top of the curtain occurs above 200 km, when fast moving electrons hit low-pressure oxygen atoms in the atmosphere. The middle green is from glowing oxygen molecules between 100 and 200 km. Below 100 km, nitrogen atoms will glow a dim purplish colour and blue. Below that, the air pressure is too high and no effect is seen.
https://www.instagram.com/vanexusphotography/ NorthernLights_Vancouver_ProtonArc_Vanexusphotography_7May2016.JPG
This is a brief spiraling proton arc pillar hitting the Pacific Ocean North of Vancouver in Porteau Cove Provincial Park taken by Karina and Amir around 11pm Saturday, and another at 2am. Wow. See https://www.instagram.com/vanexusphotography/ for a video of that.
Those vertical spiraling curtains are likely ionized oxygen atoms corkscrewing down around the Earth’s magnetic field lines.
This was the strongest flare of 2016 so far. Reportedly, as the Earth moved in its orbit, it crossed a wrinkle in the Sun’s magnetic field, where it reversed polarity briefly. This briefly buffeted the Earth’s protective magnetic field, which let in a gust of protons and electrons.
Fireball Hits Near Canal Flats 20 Dec 2014
On the Hunt for rare rock after meteorite falls in December
University of Calgary geoscience professor asking for the public’s help.A month after a spectacular fireball December 20, 2014, over the Rocky Mountains, University of Calgary researcher Alan Hildebrand is on a quest for rare meteorites.
In the early morning hours of December 20 a small piece of an asteroid entered Earth’s atmosphere high above Canal Flats, British Columbia, headed northeastwards towards Calgary, Alberta. Although western B.C. and eastern Alberta were overcast, the fireball was seen and imaged over the region between the clouds in both provinces. One spectacular still image was luckily taken by Brett Abernethy who was out with a friend imaging the night sky over Mt. Rundle near Banff when the fireball blazed an 80 km-long trail across the sky (See attached figure 1). Brett says, “We were looking north when everything lit up and we turned to see the fireball. It broke into at least three pieces and turned bright orange before fading away. After the initial shock I remembered that I was exposing a shot during the fireball and was overjoyed to discover that the shot was not overexposed.” Brett alerted the Calgary Herald to the event, who published his image which stimulated on-line discussion from other eyewitnesses.
In his search for more information about the fireball Hildebrand contacted Rick Nowell at the College of the Rockies in Cranbrook, B.C., who recorded it with his Sandia all-sky video camera through patchy clouds, and was able to correctly mark the fireball’s start time to precisely 00:25:00. With this accurate time, another all-sky still image was obtained from the University of Calgary’s Rothney Astrophysical Observatory (RAO). With these additional images in hand, he and his team were able to triangulate its location in the sky.
“It was very interesting to see how precisely a fireball path could be located just from two pictures taken more than 100 km away. We probably know where it was, start to finish within 100 metres,” says Lincoln Hanton, a recent University of Calgary graduate working with Hildebrand. The video recorded in Cranbrook and the fireball’s trajectory also show that it was a relatively slow entry velocity which favours the fall of meteorites.
Hildebrand says the fireball shows extraordinary properties. “In the photo taken by Brett, the fireball becomes visible at approximately 100 km altitude, starts fragmenting at approximately 60 km, and has its last and biggest explosion at 43 km. Those altitudes are much higher than normal. That means the rock was likely a weak type of asteroid.”
Rare carbonaceous chondrite rock
Hildebrand says the apparent weakness displayed indicates that this rock was unusual, probably a carbonaceous chondrite, which is a specific type of stony meteorite that originates from the Outer Asteroid Belt. At that distance from the Sun water and carbon-bearing compounds condensed and mixed into asteroidal bodies. Carbonaceous chondrites represent only approximately three per cent of meteorites that fall on Earth.
“Eyewitness accounts indicate that meteorites fell after surviving the trip through the atmosphere; the estimated rock mass entering the atmosphere was about 100 kg, but the largest pieces on the ground are probably only 2 kg,” says Hildebrand. “The meteorites fell in a forested area of the upper White River valley. It’s a tough area to search.” (See Figure 2)
Hildebrand says with the possibility of such a rare find his team will do some searching in the spring and encourage any others who can travel safely in this relatively remote area to search as well. How you can help
Hildebrand and his team are eager to talk with anyone who saw the fireball from Canal Flats, Fairmont Hot Springs, or Elkford, B.C. He encourages property owners in that region to check security camera systems for any shadows cast by the fireball. Anyone who had a wildlife camera in the region is also asked to check that date and time for moving shadows. Contact the University of Calgary at 403-220-8969 or via email at ltjhanto@ucalgary.ca.
Contact information: Brett Abernethy 403-620-6929 Lincoln Hanton 403-220-8969 Alan Hildebrand 403-220-2291 Rick Nowell 250-489-2751 ext 3585
Figure 1: Brett Abernethy’s image of the Dec 20 fireball looking south over Mt. Rundle from near Johnson Lake. The fireball crossed the constellation of Orion and then began fragmenting where the trail brightens and broadens. Note the slight reddening at the fireball’s end as the surviving rock fragments slowed and cooled before falling to the ground. Image is a 40 second exposure taken with a Canon 5D Mark III with a wide angle Zeiss 21 mm lens which slightly compresses the vertical aspect of the image. (All rights reserved)
Figure 2: Satellite image of eastern British Columbia showing location of the fireball trajectory projected onto the ground and estimated meteorite fall area as a yellow ellipse. The end of the fireball was about 40 km east of Fairmont Hot Springs. An eyewitness in Canal Flats would have seen the fireball travel almost straight downwards in the sky. (Figure constructed on Google Earth base)
2010-09-05 ABMO W Kelowna
All times UT
20100905 061055 NE quad going SE -2 mag
20100905 080720 SW quad going S -3 mag
20100905 080746 NE&NW quad going NW -1.7 mag long trail
20100905 093915 NE quad going N -2.6 mag
20100905 094200 SW quad going SW -2.2 mag
20100905 120316 NE quad going NNE mag unknown (Sentinel III) All others UFOC2
The RA and Dec and Az/El for all the events but last are available.
Camera systems introduction
Temp Place holder
Camera systems currently in use by network members include the Sentinel camera a Sony, the Watec 902H, and the PC164CEX-2.
Sentinel camera:
The Sentinel III camera is a Sony HiCam HB-710E. The CCD (Charge Coupled Device) is a 1.27 cm (0.5 inch) interlined chip with 410K pixels. Effective Pixels 768 (Horizontal) X 494 (Vertical). It has a super-low illumination environment of 0.0005 Lux(F1.2 /20 IRE at AGC Max). It is powered by +12VDC and consumes 150 mA at maximum load.
The lens is Rainbow L163VDC4P fisheye lens with a 180 degree field.
For a pictorial tour of the Sony HiCam HB-710E camera, it’s housing and frame grabber click here.
The Sentinel – video frame grabber comes in an external box. It contains a micro-controller, a RCM3200, from Rabbit Semiconductor. There are three connections on the box, 1) +3.3V DC input, 2) a BNC male connector for the 1Vp-p video input from the Sony camera via 75 ohm coax, and 3) an Ethernet jack. The frame grabber communicates with a PC via the ethernet cable either directly with a crossover cable or through a LAN hub via a conventional ethernet cable.
The Sentinel III system is being replaced by the Sentinel IV system which uses the same camera but uses an internal Hauppaugue model 188 video card.
Watec 902H
PC164CEX-2
acrylic domes from EZ Tops in New Brunswick.
fisheye lens, sources
2006 01 04 The 2006 Quadrantids
The Quadrantid meteor shower is the first major shower of the new year. More importantly the shower is a strong and reliable performer. It also happens to be one of the least observed stream of the major showers as early January usually produces low overcasting clouds whether you live in Asia, Europe or North America.
Unlike visual and video observers the low clouds and snow are no problem for radio observers. As the Quadrantid shower echo rates started increasing in West Kelowna, I started watching the live radio page at the RMOB site. I also visited the Japanese sites as well.
By observing these sites I could watch as the echo counts decreased in Europe as the radiant dipped downward, my numbers were on the increase. As mine were peaking the Japanese started seeing the radiant. As my data was taking hits from long duration, overdense echoes I made a note to see if I could make sense of the Quadrantid shower over both geographical space and through time.
I submitted my the results of my analysis to the editor of the WGN, the Journal of the International Meteor Organization. After being reviewed by others it was published. You can download a copy of the paper here.
Video Software systems
A place holder for discussing video software
Software systems:
Sentinel II
The Sentinel II was earliest of the Sentinel camera system used by the BCMN. It used a convex mirror with the camera above the reflecting mirror. Video was feed into a VCR. Users then scanned the nights catch the next day or when there was a report of a fireball.
Sentinel III
This system is still in use by many of the operators of the BCMN. The camera and associated hardware can be seen in a picture essay here Sentinel III system in photos. The system uses an external frame grabber which has firmware burned into a EPROM chip. The frame grabber has an IP address of 10.0.0.1 and communicates with the host computer via a Null type ethernet cable.
Pros:
- The software runs on very old, less capable computers without straining them.
- The software can run multiple platforms/systems as is.
- Software is written in a clear logical way and can be modified easily.
- Stable and will run for months at a time.
Cons:
- The external frame grabber takes time to download the capture to the software so some meteors are missed during this transaction.
- Frame grabber ties up an Ethernet port
- On some routers it is impossible to run a net time server due to the 10.0.0.# addressing or port loss.
- No stacking of images to bring out the stars. The make long exposure after event helps but is not that powerful.
- Shelf space taken up by external frame grabber, cable, and power supply cords.
Sentinel IV
Is the next generation in the Sentinel line. This system employs an internal video card; the Hauppauge ImpactVCB model 188 board.
The software is in beta testing so it is hard to list the pros and the cons. Many of the cons have been squashed in the last couple of upgrades. When fully developed the software is suppose to automatically ftp the events back to New Mexico where it will be analyzed. This feature has not been implemented as of yet.
Pros:
The biggest improvement is the near real time capture and data writing. There are no longer dead seconds (sometimes minutes) while the card downloads to the computer. This leads to much less loss of data during showers. It does have a method to simulate stacking frames that helps define dimmer stars.
I see two cons so far. The first is the software’s dependence on Windows system software. I can not be run on Linux or Mac computers without going to a virtual machine and running Windows. I see this as a big step backwards although Window users will not be that impacted by the switch. The other con is the code is compiled so there is no way to easily read or modify the source code.
It is too soon to tell how stable the final version of the software will be or what planned features will make the final cut.
Unlike Sentinel software UFOCaptureV2 (V2.22 2008/11/28) is not freeware, it is a commercial product. There are two other sets of software that analyze the UFOCapture files, UFOAnalyzer V2 (V2.28 2010/02/28) and UFO Oribit (V2.25 2010/02/28). They both are freeware and they will be covered in the Video Analysis section.
Pros:
- Works with multiple camera types.
- Highly flexible can fine tune to observer’s needs.
- Overlays a Time stamps on the video images.
- Easy to make masking
- Software notes and produces scintillation masks.
- Can fine tune the triggering and greatly reduce or eliminate aircraft, spiders, and bird triggers.
- Records more stars than Sentinel does during exposures.
- Multiple meteor capture possible
- Coupled with the two associate analysis software the trio gives the user a very powerful tool, especially with multi-station captures.
Cons:
- Needs a video to digital card like Canopus or the Hauppauge card that comes with Sentinel IV.
- Expensive license versus freeware and shareware.
- The manual was originally written in Japanese and the English translation is fairly choppy and hard to understand at times.
- Eats up a lot cpu cycles so a newer, faster and more capable computer is needed compared to a Sentinel system
- The software is so full of features it presents a steep learning curve before feeling at ease with it.
Note: Video Analysis software will be covered in the Analysis section of this site.
2006 06 A numerical method to aid
One of the biggest problem with forward scatter data is that each recording station is different from the others. One station might be using a highly directional yagi type antenna with it’s associated forward gain, while others might be using a simple vertical antenna. Others stations use a one wavelength closed loop, discones, or even quadafilar antennas. Each type of antenna places a certain bias on how many echoes are heard per hour.
In addition to the various antennas in use, radio observers also employ many different types of receivers. Some are state of the art while others are less sensitive and less selective than the more capable receivers. This again will influence the station’s daily data.
Yet an other variable among the stations it their frequency and transmitter choice. A few Japanese station listen to beacons on 28 MHz while several Europeans listen to the French satellite radar at 143. Frequency choice and the transmitter’s output power can greatly affect a station’s data.
Recognizing this inter-station variability a few of us decided to attempt a numerical model to ‘level the playing field’ by using the concept of Observability Function. There will be follow ups to improve this initial modeling. It has been field tested and provides some hope on equalizing the data from such diverse stations.
The complete paper (WGN 34:3 p87-97) can be downloaded here.
Geminid Meteor Shower 14 Dec 2015
The best and most reliable meteor shower of the year are the Geminids at 120 meteors per hour on early Monday December 14. The second best are the Quadrantids at 120/hr on January 4 but these last only for a few hours. The Perseids are better known, since they occur on August 13 when it’s nice and warm out. But they’re actually number three on the list at 100 meteors per hour.
Since the new Moon occurs on Dec 11, the sky will be dark so we should see even the fainter meteors. The peak should occur around 10am in the morning, Dec 14, persisting for 24 hours. But 2am is fine when the shower’s radiant point, Gemini, rises high in the sky to the East. The meteors are the sand, dust and gravel remains of an Apollo asteroid (3200 Phaethon), coming in at medium speeds of 35km/second. (That’s a medium speed for a meteor. Other meteor shower velocities range from 11 to 72 km/s.) The Geminids come in various colours–65% being white, 26% yellow, and the remaining 9% blue, red and green. They’re active from Dec 4 until Thursday Dec 17. Last night I saw a bright yellow tinted fireball zip across Orion crossing a quarter of the Southern sky, leaving a shorter glowing trail along the last third of it’s flight; and another fireball went across Taurus just two minutes later. Last night I saw a bright yellow tinted fireball zip across Orion crossing a quarter of the Southern sky, leaving a shorter glowing trail along the last third of it’s flight; and another fireball went across Taurus just two minutes later.
Which direction is best to look? Where it’s darkest. As you can see in these composite photos from last year, the fireballs scatter all over the sky, radiating out from Gemini to the East. But when you watch the area around Gemini, the streaks there are shorter and slower moving. These fisheye photos show the whole sky as a circle: North is up, South down, East to the left, and West to right. 
Below is a starmap looking East around 11pm on Dec 14. Note Gemini the Twins rising due East, just left of Orion the Hunter. Look for two bright stars, Castor over top of the other, Pollux. Gemini the Twins used to be a benevolent guide for the ancient Sailers. In movies you sometimes hear old sailors exclaim “By Jiminy!”. Sirius is the very bright star along the SouthEastern horizon below Orion. Taurus the Bull is the “>” shape above Orion, with the red eye of Aldebaran. The Pleiades are a small fuzzy patch above that.
These pictures are pixelated to fit in this small window–right click and open image in a new tab to zoom in more.
Geminid Meteor Shower 14 Dec 2014
Geminid Meteor Shower Sun Dec 14 2014
One of the best meteor showers during the year are the Geminids, which occur annually on Dec 14. Earth enters the fringes of their orbit from Dec 4 until Dec 17. The peak of 120 meteors per hour, should be from Saturday noon Dec 13, until Sunday morning 10am Dec 14, 2014.
The skies were dark, since the Moon didn’t rise until after midnight. Although both nights it got cloudy around 1am where I am near Cranbrook, BC. The meteors were generally bright, medium fast speeds of 35km/s, and different colours. I saw white and red. This shower has some mass sorting, with small dust arriving the first day, followed by grains of sand, then pebbles a day later. It’s debris from a 5km diameter asteroid, 3200 Pheathon.
Dec 16 is also the peak for a smaller meteor shower, the Coma Berenicids, with a peak of 3 meteors per hour.
I took three Nikon cameras out. I goofed on one camera, I had it set for just ISO 1000. That captured two meteors in Ursa Minor, and that’s why they were so dim. The other two cameras were set at 3200 ISO, which is optimum. The max is 6400, but that can be snowy. The slight background brown glow is woodsmoke and thin cloud, the camera sensor shows haze like that. This was a Vivitar 28mm f/2.5 lens, hooded against the frost. All the tripods and camera equipment quickly frosted over at the -7 deg temperatures.
I was out again Sunday evening by Horseshoe Lake, with clouds over Orion. I got a hundred more photos and listened to coyotes howling nearby. The meteors were pretty nice still, I saw one every minute, some just out of the corners of my eye. Most were white falling parallel to the northern and southern horizon. Two I saw were moving slow, red in colour, on the far Western horizon.
The AllSky Meteor Cam at the College of the Rockies in Cranbrook BC
This is the College All-sky meteor cam showing the eleven brightest Dec 15 meteors stacked on one frame, from 7pm until 2am when it clouded over. North at top of photo and East to the left. Two bright fireballs on the horizon! That trail of dots there is Jupiter rising. Some clumps of dots are just aircraft strobes.
And here’s the 11 meteor stack for Dec 14 from 9pm until 1:15am, when it clouded over. About the same each evening.
And just for fun, here’s all the photos stacked from the camera watching Ursa Minor over a 43 minute period, taken with 30 second exposures, 28mm f/2.5 lens, 1000 ISO.
This photo was taken facing South, showing Orion before the Moon rose, from Invermere by Robert Ede. He says: I saw some beauties. A few with smoke trails.