Transient Luminous Events, including sprites, are observed in the upper atmosphere over active thunderstorms. They are dim and short lived (several to tens of milliseconds) and difficult to observe by naked eye. Therefore high sensitive CCD cameras are used for observations of these phenomena. The following equipment is used in the SPARTAN Sprite-Watch campaign:
CCD Camera:
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The 1/2" WAT-902H monochrome camera is a super high sensitivity (near IR spectrum) compact (8cm length and 4 cm width) and light weight (90 g) Watec camera. It is equipped with a 16 mm f/1.4 Computar lens. |
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UFOCaptureV2 is a time - shift - motion - detect - video - recording - software by SonotaCo. It runs on Windows PC and is used to capture meteors, airplanes, satellites, birds, lightnings and TLEs. The images is converted to a digital form by the Pinnacle Dazzle DVD Recorder capture device connected to a notebook using a USB port. |
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GPS receiver is required to precise timing for the recorded phenomena. The video time inserter puts the information about the GPS time on the image from the camera. We used KIWI-Garmin GPS and KIWI-OSD time inserter purchased from PFD Systems. | ||||
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The Manfrotto camera head enables pointing the camera in a chosen direction. Using the scales and controls you can adjust the tilt and pan of the camera. Housing provides protection for the camera - we have chosen a Computar camera housing. The camera head is attached to a clamp made in the department workshop. |
