Software to video meteors (and other stuff in the sky)
UFOCapture is a Windows application that helps you videotape meteors and other fast-moving stuff in space. You hook up a sensitive video camera to your computer, point it out your window, and while you slumber, the software saves all the good bits.
It’s full of falling stars! But wait a minute. There are even more videos from this same user. Does he waste every night looking at the sky? Does he goes through hundreds of hours of videos searching for meteors? Is this a hoax?This is my favorite. What is it?No, he just uses a fantastic piece of software that automates mostly everything: the UFOCaptureV2! It’s joined by the UFOAnalyzer and the UFOOrbit. The whole package automates the process of detecting unusual phenomena in the sky, and even attempts to automatically classify and analyze it.
Check the samples of videos captured by the software: meteors, birds et al and, what I was quite skeptical when I first saw it, even sprites, elves and jets! Of course, it wouldn’t be worth its name if it didn’t also capture UFOs.
The software is free for use for 30 days, and the price is more than worth it, as the developer actively adds features and corrects bugs, being also available in support forums. For less than U$5,000 one would be able to set up a system, and that’s from scratch: the most expensive parts would be the high-sensitivity night camera and associated optics, and the dedicated PC.
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It's likely that a lot of those are not meteros, but Iridium flares (reflection of light from the solar panel of a passing Iridium satellite).
More info, along with where and when to look: http://www.heavens-above.com/iridiumhelp.asp
Will this software also help you get photographs to incriminate or exonerate prosecutors suspected of murder most foul?
I think that is the camera being overflown by a varieze. http://www.aircraftdesign.com/varieze.jpg
Its a relativly common homebuilt designed by Burt Rutan of SS1 fame.
I venture the object in in Mark's favorite is a jet airplane.
This type of image enhancement creates some odd-looking effects, and those meteor shots look spectacular and bright here, but if you saw them with the naked eye, I suspect you'd barely see them.
Your chances will go up if you monitor during known meteor shower times.
http://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors/
$180 dollars for the software?!!!
Gulp!
I'll wait for some nice person to SourceForge it. (If I can coin a term...)
I suppose that Mark's favorite object is a B52...
#1: I didn't see any that looked like Iridium flares. Iridiums don't shoot across the sky leaving a trail. They just quickly flare and fade, almost in the same spot due to the slower speed of satellites.
I've seen the same thing for nocturnal animals...
http://animaldetector.blogspot.com/
Is it just me or doesn't it look like something hit the building at about 1:33 into the sample video?
Anyhow, I might have to try out the free 30 day trial sometime From a brief look on the site, I think I have all I need except the software.
One hundred years ago, "an object the size of a 15-story building fell in a remote part of Siberia called Tunguska. The object—an asteroid or a small comet—exploded a few miles before impact, scorching and blowing down trees across 800 square miles. The night sky was so bright with dust from the explosion, or icy clouds from the water vapor it blasted into the upper atmosphere, that for days people in Europe could read newspapers outdoors at night."
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/08/earth-scars/stone-text
Here's a computer simulation of the Siberian asteroid explosion, which generated hurricane-like winds over a large area:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/08/earth-scars/blast-interactive
That's just bloody weird. I reran the video of the 'what is it' about thirty times, and I'm still drawing a blank. Nice call on the Varieze - it does kinda look like a Rutancraft, and they are mostly painted white unlike military craft, so it would show up, underlit, better at night. I wonder if anybody filed a flight plan for around that time?
This software is use among french ufology groups for a long time
we use it during "SURICATE operation" night where we share the sky of the country, searching in the sky during the all night, groups are linked together on a website and with phones and tell the direction to another checkpoint when they can see something weird crossing the sky...
http://www.mstrfspcndtm.rg/
Master of Space and Time,
Please work on mastering incoming communications. You've been asked several times to stop putting your blog link in your comments.
As a serious non-believer, most of those little streaks look to me like what they probably are; meteors. On the top and bottom of some of the segments are times codes, and a couple of those were very close to meteor showers (though not necessarily the peaks). However, that aside, even on an average night, the chances of seeing a meteor are pretty good, and the sensitivity of the cameras in question, even a regular "shooting star" would look spectacular (one segment clearly showed Orion, and you could see quite a bit of fuzziness around the "sword. That's the Orion Nebula, and if it was captured under those conditions, the camera is pretty doggone sensitive).
The slower lights were probably aircraft (them military jets is fast) and possibly satellites. Couldn't view the WMV file (run Mac and Ubuntu and refuse... err... don't have the correct codices for WMV's). My guess, though, is one of those spaceplanes El Ron mentions in his beliefs... a straggler, and a very late one at that...
I apologize
Won't do it again
Thanks. I've reemvowelled your comment.
I don't think the mystery object is a Varieze - the wing angles seem very different. Without knowing something of the set-up of the camera, it's impossible to even guess at height, size or speed, but would a commercial aircraft be out at night at what would seem to be a low altitude with no running lights?
I suppose some of the X45 UAV variants have similar wing geometry. But it doesn't seem a good fit there either.