Set up your own meteor detection system
Connect a Raspberry Pi to a camera and help the Global Meteor Network with its research
e all know about the big meteor showers such as the Geminids and Perseids, but Earth is also bombarded by much smaller meteors every night. Knowing more about these tiny pieces of space dust helps us to analyse meteor showers, sporadic meteors and fireballs, as well as increasing our knowledge of the risk to Earth from larger debris. For example, consider ‘orbital resonance’, which occurs when orbiting bodies exert periodic gravitational influence on each other: research has shown that fireballs from one branch of the Southern Taurid meteor shower debris stream are in 7:2 resonance with Jupiter. This supports a theory that asteroid impacts on Earth are not totally random and appear to have resonances too. Meteor analysis is vital to help our understanding of such potential risks.
One way that amateurs can help is by setting up a meteor detection system. A few years ago this was an expensive task, but now with some simple electronic parts it’s much easier. These systems record the sky all night long, so even when you can’t stay up late observing yourself, your camera will continue to record for you. And since the camera is running constantly you’ll never miss any cloud breaks.
WA meteor detection system captures both video and stills. The images and videos are not high resolution as the main goal here is scientific analysis of the data, but it’s still great to have a visual record of events. Your data will be automatically uploaded to a global database, where it is combined with data from other cameras to work out the orbit, and often the origin, of a meteor; it may even be used to work out where a meteorite might have landed.
The data is used to monitor meteor shower rates and duration, accurately forecast the peak of the shower, as well as monitoring and predicting outbursts and plotting the radiant – the point at which the shower appears to originate as seen from Earth. These systems help to track minor meteor showers, sporadic meteors, fireballs and new showers. Once your camera is set up it all happens automatically, but you can do your own analysis of the data as well.
Getting ready
The system we are setting up runs on a Raspberry Pi and uses a cheap security camera module. It uses the Raspberry Pi Meteor Station (RMS) software, which is free to download from the Global Meteor Network (GMN) at bit.ly/3pBfdZe. Before you begin, download the RMS disk image (a copy of the operating system (OS)) from the URL above, unzip it to a folder and burn the image to the micro-SD card using balenaEtcher, or a similar tool for burning disk images. When you boot up the Pi it will automatically install the OS software ready for you to configure it. You will also need a camera code before you begin, so contact the GMN team via email, at denis.vida@gmail.com.