Hiram Camera Watches Skies all Night

Back in the spring of 2011 I learned that NASA was seeking new locations to become stations in their All-Sky Fireball Network. Knowing the nighttime skies over Hiram can be excellent, I thought addition of a local network station would be a great thing: it would allow viewing of local phenomena often missed by human eyes, and would contribute to real ongoing micrometeorite research. Making the station happen, however, was not so simple.

The Network is a collection of automated cameras that watch the sky every night for incoming meteors, brighter than the planet Venus, called fireballs. Each station's local computer analyzes video in real time looking for signature flashes made by bright meteors. If a fireball is spotted, the video is captured and relayed to the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., for further analysis. "The collected data will be used by the MEO {Meteoroid Environment Office} in constructing models of the meteoroid environment, which are important to spacecraft designers," says a NASA statement.

The Fireball Network (about 2012) Before Hiram Came Along

I received the go-ahead to pursue the project from Dr. Laura Van Wormer, Physics Department Chair, and contacted Dr. William Cooke, the head of NASA's MEO, asking him about applying. The application form was astonishingly easy and from the beginning it was apparent we were a good potential site. I completed the form and waited.

Stations in the Fireball Network require an unobstructed view of the sky (360 degrees, nearly down to the horizon), a relatively clear dark nighttime sky, and infrastructure including high-speed Internet access; Hiram had all of those qualities, at least in some places. Hiram's ground-level Stephens Memorial Observatory is located on what today would be a residential lot in the village. The Observatory property is bordered by tall trees on the western property line and by houses and trees to the north and east, thus unsuitable for wide views of the sky. Nor does Stephens have broadband Internet. Buildings on campus, however, had different combinations of the three requirements!

The tallest building on the Hiram College campus that might afford a clear view of the sky, with roof space for a camera setup, and proximity to sheltered space for a computer, was the Colton-Turner Science Building. Colton is a very old building but the view from atop its mechanicals penthouse is amazing!

Panorama Shot from the Penthouse Roof Showing Hiram College Campus and Horizon

A long period of waiting was punctuated by occasional contacts with NASA and eventually we were told we were approved. There was, however, one little problem: the Northeastern U.S. was not covered well by the Fireball Network and there were no other stations close enough to work with us -- stations need to be not-too-close and not-too-distant from each other in order that their fields of view overlap and proper triangulation can be made of any meteor sighting. Triangulation allows for calculation of speed, distance, brightness, etc., all important to the research. Perhaps, as Dr. Cooke suggested, we could join the Canadian meteor network?

More waiting. Then suddenly, in October 2012, an exchange of emails began with Dr. Cooke's associate, Danielle Moser of the Micrometeoroid Environment Office. There were no other nearby applicants, she stated, did I have any suggestions? I provided a few but, apparently through her own research, Moser found other interested and qualified parties and the project was "on!"

The Weather Station atop Colton

Meanwhile I needed to find a suitable home in Colton for the Fireball camera host computer system. I had seen a weather station on the roof of the building and asked about whose it was; perhaps we could work together. Enter, Dr. Louis Oliphant, Chair of the Computer Science Department. From the start Oliphant was enthusiastically supportive of the camera project. He first suggested a small closet inside of the mechanicals penthouse. There was electrical power available, LAN connectivity, and close proximity to the roof, but I could only imagine that room, outside wall facing west, heating to oven-like temperatures in the summertime and killing the NASA computer. There had to be another place for the computer to live.

Technician Installing the All-Sky Camera High above Hiram

After much mulling over, and queries by Oliphant, a new space was offered up: a dumbwaiter elevator shaft. Good, but no wiring access to the roof and no windows for a GPS antenna. Nearby, however, was the answer: the corner of a little-used laboratory. The lab's "owner," Dr. Matthew Sorrick of Environmental Studies, was happy to allow the installation.

All-Sky Fireball Network Camera Sits Atop its Mast Waiting for Dark

So on August 13, 2013, after much delay, emailing, and a lot of head-scratching and searching, technicians arrived at Hiram College and set up the All-Sky camera system. Cables were strung from the roof down to the lab and through a window frame, the computer set up and configured for Hiram's LAN with help from Network Administrator Bryan Drennen, and the system tested. We didn't know when we might see the first results but were happy to have Hiram now an official observation station. It was a long process, a long day, and we were willing to rest and wait. As it turns out, we didn't have to wait long.

"First Light" for Hiram College's Fireball Network Camera - a Bright Perseid in the Western Sky!

The annual Perseids meteor shower had peaked over cloudy skies the past weekend but there are always stragglers. The Perseid shower is known to be rich in fireball meteors, again, those brighter than Venus. In that first overnight and under mostly-clear skies, the little camera picked up several fireballs, verified in coordination with the other new camera station at Oberlin College. Everyone involved was delighted.

The Fireball Network (August 2013) After Hiram and Partners Were Added

I am very pleased that Hiram played a big part in spurring expansion of The Fireball Network into the Northeastern region of the U.S.  From now on, we will not only watch the skies but watch for what our unblinking eye on the sky has seen. Meteor showers will become even more interesting.

Postscript: Not only am I thrilled and proud to have seen this effort through to fruition, to be listed with the fabulous historic Allegheny Observatory (thanks to NASA's recruitment of them) is a huge honor!

Hot Jupiter!

Saturday, August 15 was a Public Night at Stephens Memorial Observatory. It was hot, hazy, and humid and, though viewing was set to begin at 9:30, folks began arriving just a little past 9:00 -- a sign it will be a busy night!

As twilight began to fade I trained the telescope on the red giant star Antares. The idea was to nudge the telescope a bit as the sky darkened and look at the neighboring star cluster M4. That didn't happen as constellation Scorpius was sinking into the trees to our south and west taking the star cluster with it.

I made an attempt to locate the beautiful star cluster M15 but could not find it. As Jupiter was rising from behind trees to our east, moved on to that planet. Lower-level air was hazy but the atmosphere was quiet and seeing steady. We were treated to some excellent views of Jupiter at low power (about 30X) and, much later, at 104X. The equatorial cloud belts were visible nearly all of the time and we occasionally saw traces of the north and south temperate cloud belts. Truly impressive.

The excellent turnout --more than 50 visitors including at least three children-- made it difficult to change magnifications and celestial objects during the course of the evening. Those who stayed late and were patient saw the higher magnification views of Jupiter plus a good look at the "faint-fuzzy" M31 -- the Andromeda Galaxy (actually looking quite bright with central brightness and extended nebulous area). A couple of satellite passes and at least one meteor (likely a late Perseid) were seen through the dome slit.

Light pollution illuminated the hazy lower atmosphere making low-elevation skies murky and bright. Stepping outside and looking directly overhead, however, we could easily see the great band of the Milky Way stretching across the sky, replete with dust lanes. The star cloud did not quite reach down far enough to the south to join constellation Sagittarius before being swallowed up in the bright Earthbound haze.

Last visitors to leave were a couple who were curious about constellations and what star cluster it was they saw the other night -- the Pleiades. We spoke for several minutes sharing meteorite experiences in the front lawn. I closed up the Observatory at about 11:30. It was a hot night but the seeing was excellent.

The telescope's R.A. tracking is pretty bad. Troubleshooting shows the clock is working well and the gear train is transmitting motion so the conclusion is the R.A. collar is slipping. I hope to address that problem within the next month.

Perseids Meteor Watch

The 2009 Perseids Meteor Watch I worked last night (August 12) was very mixed in results. The Portage Park District set us up in a fine little park with no ground-level lights, a nice paved parking lot, and clear grassy areas. There was a wide view of the sky and a good southern horizon. A Sheriff's deputy was on hand as was the District's naturalist -- really good support, especially in case of a big turnout. Then there are the "buts"...

Admittedly we put the event together in hurried fashion. Word didn't get out to the public as broadly or with enough lead time so only a couple of families showed up.

Then there was the sky. We were very close to the city of Ravenna but I'd hoped we would be just far enough away to escape the light bubble. Not much luck there. As the Sun sank below the western horizon a funny thing happened ... twilight shifted to the south. Yeah, huge levels of light pollution rose up in the southern sky right through the heart of Sagittarius. So while the clear skies allowed us to see the Milky Way, with dust lane, directly overhead, its heart was obliterated by the "Ravenna Nebula." Too bad.

Attendees and volunteers did, however, enjoy a few very good Perseid meteors. I myself saw only about five; being busy with telescopes and chatting with visitors has its costs. The 6-inch Meade telescope worked well but was impeded for want of a really good polar alignment: it had problems centering on objects it was told to "GoTo" but tracked very well once there. The dew point was high and everything quickly became quite damp, even wet, as the night progressed. The extended AstroZap dew shield saved the objective from fogging, however, so we saw decent views of Jupiter with three moons, and very good views of the Andromeda Galaxy, and M15 (a globular star cluster in the constellation Pegasus).

I tore down after the official 11:30 close. Before getting into my car to leave, a very nice Perseid streaked across the sky leaving a trail that glowed for a second or two -- as if just for me. I headed home, a bit disappointed but recalled a few happy visitors who saw planets, stars, galaxies, and meteors!

Perseid meteors fizzle

The weekend's Perseid meteor shower was a bit of a bust for me. I didn't have much ambition and the sky conditions were rather hazy with a few passing clouds. Not great inspiration for staying up til all hours to watch for "falling stars." I stepped outside a few times Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights and bagged about six meteor sightings but wasn't inspired to head to darker skies. Tonight, however, was a beautiful night! The humidity and haze were down, it was nicely cool, and the sky was cloudless. I stepped outdoors at about 10:30, binoculars in hand, and decided to take a look around. The light-polluted sky was clear enough to display a good number of stars, Jupiter, with Antares nearby, shown brightly to the south, and, OH! a single bright meteor streaked north to south as I gazed skyward! Later I believe I spotted a very faint meteor headed in the same direction. Checking out the northeast sky with the binoculars and yes!, I was able to find the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) with no trouble at all so we've got a shot at showing it off at the next observatory open house. In the binocular field of view the galaxy was a faint fuzz-ball, rather indistinct in the bright skyglow, but it was there! I was too tired to go to the club meeting tonight and too tired to haul myself out to actually observe. The sky, however, is a wonder to behold no matter how you behold it!