1004X EX-VIEW LONG EXPOSURE ASTRO CAMERA
LEONIDS
19th NOVEMBER 2002
1004x-JG WITH STANDARD LENS 150x 2sec
Taken between 03:43 - 4:05 with the 1004x-JG with its standard lens, mounted on the GPDX motorised mount
150x 2sec frames stacked using K3CCDtools "if lighter" mode. No other processing (yet)
The white blobs are cloud. The bright object bottom right is Jupiter. The steaks are the meteors, diverging from the radiant in Leo at the bottom of the frame. The screen effect is an imaging artifact (dark/flat needed)
(This image was shown on spaceweather.com, NASA TV and BBC TV Look North on 19th November and also published in Astronomy and Space January 2003)
PROCESSED VERSION
(Taken between 03:43 and 04:21 A total of 30 meteors were detected, 16 are visible in this image)
All frames dark and flat compenstated. The background was created from 58 stacked frames without clouds. 28 frames with meteors were identified. The meteor trails were isolated with masks in Paintshop Pro and added to the background image using "lightest" option. Dark level was set to eliminate skyglow from full moon
The individual frames containing the meteor trails can be viewed
hereA report on the 2002 Leonids as seen from the UK and some more of my images can be seen on the
Society for Popular Astronomy websiteThis image was also published in Astronomy Now February 2003
