SIERRA COLLEGE
ASTRONOMY DEPARTMENT
Meteor Camera Investigations
What is the Sierra College Meteor Camera?
This page contains recent video captures taken with the Sierra College Astronomy Dept., Sandia Fireball Network Camera.
Click here for more details about the Network and participants METEORS!
The system is an “All Sky” video camera which has a 180 deg. field of view. There is a custom signal processor and memory
system which buffers a few seconds of video. The processor compares each captured frame to the previous, and when it detects an event
(meteor), the previous frames are sent to a host PC. Software in this system produces a "back in time" image and a video.
These videos are xxx.mov files, and can be viewed with an Apple Quicktime plugin viewer.
The images are black and
white (some have been false colored [amber] to enhance contrast and event detections). The xxx.jpg images are composites
of the entire video.
Some of the detections also have an "autoexposure" which is a xxx.jpg
stacking of 10 images to bring out the brighter stars. This allows for
precise positioning of the event.
The camera is located on top of my house at 38 deg. 48’ 31” of latitude and
121 deg. 14’ 57” longitude and an elevation of 119 meters in Rocklin, CA (USA), about 20 miles northeast of
Sacramento, CA.
We are coordinating our observations with Wayne Watson in Nevada City who is also operating a
Sandia Fireball Network Camera. All events captured by BOTH cameras have a "WW" following the Sentinel date and time
header.
A fireball (or bollide) is another name for a very bright meteor due to atmospheric entry of space debris, both natural and
man-made. Our experience thus far shows that they occur about once a day, with a bright one every week or so. The cameras began regular
operation around mid-April 2004. It is an automated system which operates from just before dusk to just after dawn.
Some day time operations have been attempted, but so far only a few daytime fireball event have been captured.
Dave Kenyon
Professor of Astronomy
Sierra College Astronomy Dept.
To view a copy of a paper about this program to be presented at the
Society for Astronomical Sciences Symposium May 25th - 26th, 2005
in Big Bear, Ca. click here .
Click here for more details about the symposium SAS!
To view image captures and videos from 2004 click here .
To view image captures and videos from 2005 click here .
To view image captures and videos from 2008 first half click here .
The most recent captures are posted below:
Here is the "Great November Fireball" captured from Rocklin,CA. and in Nevada City, CA.
Sentinel Event 8300 System Time Tue Nov 18 17:37:06 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Click the image from Nevada City full size view 
Click here for a video of the Nevada City event! RUN VIDEO
Sentinel Event 8181 System Time Mon Jul 14 22:11:59 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8182 System Time Tue Jul 15 02:02:09 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8183 System Time Tue Jul 15 04:07:09 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8184 System Time Mon Jul 28 01:49:41 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8185 System Time Mon Jul 28 02:44:57 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8186 System Time Mon Jul 28 03:13:02 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8187 System Time Mon Jul 28 03:17:53 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8188 System Time Mon Jul 28 03:20:58 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8189 System Time Tue Jul 29 01:47:33 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8190 System Time Tue Jul 29 21:57:19 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8191 System Time Tue Jul 29 22:11:42 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8192 System Time Wed Jul 30 00:39:37 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8193 System Time Wed Jul 30 23:13:54 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8194 System Time Thu Jul 31 00:31:26 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8195 System Time Thu Jul 31 03:14:03 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8196 System Time Thu Jul 31 04:35:31 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8197 System Time Thu Jul 31 04:41:44 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8198 System Time Thu Jul 31 05:00:53 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8199 System Time Thu Jul 31 22:39:47 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8200 System Time Fri Aug 01 04:02:29 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8201 System Time Fri Aug 01 04:43:59 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8202 System Time Sat Aug 02 02:48:46 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8203 System Time Sat Aug 02 03:43:21 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8204 System Time Sat Aug 02 04:00:11 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8205 System Time Sat Aug 02 21:43:27 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8206 System Time Sat Aug 02 22:28:49 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8207 System Time Sun Aug 03 00:27:46 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8208 System Time Sun Aug 03 00:43:05 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8209 System Time Sun Aug 03 02:15:02 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8210 System Time Sun Aug 03 02:40:10 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8211 System Time Sun Aug 03 02:51:41 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8212 System Time Sun Aug 03 04:22:51 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8213 System Time Sun Aug 03 04:38:20 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8214 System Time Sun Aug 03 23:46:45 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8215 System Time Sun Aug 03 23:49:43 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8216 System Time Mon Aug 04 01:54:38 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8217 System Time Mon Aug 04 02:56:11 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 8218 System Time Mon Aug 04 03:20:20 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Sentinel Event 82xx System Time xxx Aug xx 0x:xx:xx 2008
Click the image for full size view 
Click here for a video of the event! RUN VIDEO
Here is the autoexposure. Click for a full size view 
Return to
Home Planet (Sierra College Astronomy Home Page)
For questions or comments regarding
this page, contact the Astronomy Department
Meteor Cam Master
Information
about Sierra College can be obtained from the Sierra College Web
Site
This
web page was last updated on
10/12/06 01:18 PM
Page contents © 2001-2006 Sierra College Astronomy Department