The link below will download a ZIP folder containing a copy of the “Spectrum” folder in my root directory on my silver Dell Windows laptop from 7/6/2019. This contains the configuration files developed by the group over the last few years to detect meteors using radar scatter from Graves in France.
Andy
Andrews Spectrum folder from C root drive Silver Dell laptop 070619
The main shower in May was the Eta Aquarids, peaking on the 6th May (yellow star). The total number of meteors recorded using meteor reflections of the Graves signal was3498.
The hourly average was 5/hr with a max of 21/hr between 07:00 and 08:00 on 5th May.
The daily average was 113 meteors with a maximum of 148 on 17th May probably due to the May Arietids Daytime shower.
May has many daytime showers (G.W.Kronk “Meteors Showers- An Annotated Catalogue” ) and this seems to be supported by the data showing the monthly total for each hour observed.
Radio Scatter Graves Radar Peter Bolas Observatory Rosliston Forestry Centre,
Lyrid Meteor Shower,
6/5/2019 @ 10:30
Andrew Thornett
Successful detection of Lyrid meteor shower at the new Peter Bolas Observatory during an observatory working party session on Bank Holiday Monday.
The surprise was the frequency of meteors shown on screenshots below – there are up to 11/12 meteors evident on singe screenshots!
On Saturday, we had an outreach day and had difficulty getting radio scatter to work. Eventually we found a broken wire in the aerial end of the aerial cable at its connection – a temporary Heath Robinson approach got it working. Since then, I have soldered the connection and today was a chance to test it.
I also changed laptop from my (expensive, cant afford to lose it) main laptop to a spare Dell PC that is 10 years old and not the end of the world were it to get broken or stolen!
Trying it out today – I could not seem to get good signal through the microphone port on this new machine but I had a spare USB microphone port which I plugged in and the laptop and Spectrum Lab successfully detected the microphone and almost immediately meteors were seen on the screen – great success!
Andy
Photos of myself observing meteors by radio scatter at Rosliston & serial screenshots at 1 minute intervals from Spectrum Lab:
During today’s science outreach event at Rosliston Forestry Centre, Bob and I achieved successful detection of meteors from Graves by radio scatter on 143.049MHz, on my silver Dell laptop running Windows 10/Spectrum Lab software, together with Yaesu FT-817 radio & 2 element Yagi on Clansman mast.
Bob and I set up an aerial to detect meteors by radio scatter – initially unsuccessful until we found a broken wire! Once fixed in a rather Heath Robinson way (indebted to Lee Bale without whom we could not have got this working today), we detected a fair number of meteors (a few screenshots below).
Andy
Meteors detected by radio scatter today:
Meteor radio scatter equipment:
Making a hole to insert bottom of meteor radio scatter aerial:
A total of 1571 meteors were detected in April, using the reflected radar signal from Graves.
The daily average was 52 with a maximum of 121 on 23rd April. The hourly average was 2 with a max of 13 between10:00 -11:00 on 23rd.
The months activity started off quieter than last year, although the peak activity was higher, the Lyrids peak on the 22nd April, although both years show a peak on the 23rd, this is probably a combination of the Lyrids and Pi puppids (18 -25 april, peak 23rd). The non directionality of the detector makes it difficult to ascribe any count to a particular shower.
The increase in activity at end of month heralds the approach of the Eta Aquarids which peak on 6th May, with the moon only a few days old.
March is not noted for any major shower and the months count is made up of sporadics and contributions from minor showers.
The total count for the month was 1497, with an average daily total of 48, with a maximum of 91 for the 14th march. The hourly average was 2, with a maximum of 11 between 3-4am on 4th March. The signal from graves appears to have gone down between 07:00 on 20th to 19:00 on 21st but I have no confirmation. The count from the 21st to the end of the month was lower than the early part of the month, the opposite to last year ..( see last chart 2018-2019)
April sees the Lyrids shower peaking on the 22nd, coinciding with a bright, just past full moon.
Not noted for its meteor showers, February displays some minor meteor showers not noted for high visibility but detectable using the reflected radar signal from Graves.
The three element Yagi / fundongle pro+set up detected 1744 meteors in February. The hourly average was 2.6 / hr with an hourly maximum of 10 between 00:02 – 00:03 on 5th Feb. The daily average was 62.3 with a daily maximum of 79 on 4th Feb..
The hourly and daily plots are shown below as well as a comparison of daily counts for the last 3 years.
March is also a “quiet” month with no notable showers.
Pete Hill
Based upon the reflections of the Graves radar signal 2546 meteors were detected in January.
The daily average was 82 with a maximum of 289 on 4thJan.
The hourly average was 3.4 with an hourly max of 51 between 3-4 am on 4th Jan, there was a secondary peak of max 21 between 10-11 am on the same day.
The peak activity on the 4th represented the Quadrantid meteor shower peaking at 3-4am , Sky at Night (jan) magazine suggested that the secondary maximum would be due to the debris from the 1974 visitation of comet 46P which was visible during January.
There are several minor showers also present during January.
Below are the daily and hourly plots for January, the two distinct peaks are visible on the hourly count, the red bar indicates where Graves was off line between 17:00 on the 13th to 07:00 on the 14th.
The last plot is a comparison with the 2018 data.
I have managed to capture a whole years meteor data for 2018, allowing a comparison with the data from 2017.
The 2017 data is presented first, ( scaled to same scale as 2018), then 2018 , chart of combined data, the colour does not come out, the 2018 data is the lighter shade.
