Sporadic visitor

 Meteor, Solar System  No Responses »
Jul 242012
 

Fortunately, enough of the observatory is back on line after the lightning strike to capture a meteor this morning.  Tracing the path back along the sky, the meteor’s course appears to be too far west for it to be a Capricornid or a Delta Aquarid.  Both showers peak this weekend but it is not uncommon for there to be early and late arrivals.  Meteor showers usually last several days with the counts slowly building to a peak and then tapering off. 

Meteors that are not identified with a known shower are known as sporadic meteors.

I have a couple of motion detection packages, the one with the best detection algorithm is not sophisticated enough to allow dark frame subtraction. That is the cause of all the ‘stars’ that can be seen in the area around the circular FOV.  The hot pixels are not limited to the surrounding area; there are quite a few claiming membership in the visible constellations.  Luckily, they do not interfere with motion detection.

 Posted by at 23:00

The 6th of July fireworks.

 General Commentary  No Responses »
Jul 062012
 

If you pay attention to the Pear Tree Observatory weather station you may have noticed that it went off the air sometime between 05:50 and 05:55 this morning.  Below is a picture of the guilty party.

The lightning struck the one remaining tree in the front yard.  It debarked a spiral path down the trunk and along a large branch that reaches out toward the house. I can’t find any damage to the house so I don’t know if the branch provided the final path to ground or not.  The damage to the tree looks extensive so we may lose it.  If I were to pick, I would have preferred it be a tree in the back yard.  There are several that limit the view of the sky.

 

 

 

 

 

I was able to bring most everything back on line with backup components and alternate wiring.  But right now the electronic damage is the 3 month old HP color laser printer, the Netgear switch in the house and another Netgear switch and the router in the observatory.  Two weather station receivers were also lost.

The major loss would be the oak tree. It alone survived the hurricanes, tree climbing youngsters and amateur attempts at landscaping. It provides shade to an entire half of the front yard at a time.

 Posted by at 12:51