UFO Capture

[BillW]

Hi,

Is anybody out there using UFO Capture by SonotaCo?

This is a fantastic piece of software that allows motion detection with a whole range of generic video equipment. It is very flexible and I can thoroughly recommend it!

It will open up a whole new world of meteor observing if you've never tried it. There is a free version and a full function version that needs a license.

Bill.

[markt]

I've just downloaded the free version, will have a play around with it and report back what I find.

[misa]

Hi. I think the Armagh Observatory uses the UFO CaptureV2 system.

[BillW]

Hi,
Misa, welcome aboard.

Yes, That's exactly where I found out about it a few years ago.
I've been using V2.22 for 2 years now and think it's great.

Regards,
Bill.

[leolion]

Hi Bill & markt , Using UFOFree last night initial .avi s were time logged fairly accurately but were lagging by ca 10 minutes at the end of the run. Was doing other things on the computer as well as capture . Computer clock itself set against NIST daily. The computer clock has shown little drift.
Cloud to 7 octas plus but brighter stars in gaps. Had to move the camera in altitude to avoid the odd car breasting a local hill and visible at the field edge. Any thoughts ?

[BillW]

Hi,

I've seen some drift on my own pc's too but never as much as minutes.
I've no idea what could be causing such a lag.
Are you using windows?, maybe that's got something running in the background as well.

Had the first clear night in weeks last night! There were some late season nlc in the evening sector but they were faint. I'm glad I've actually got to see something before we lose them for another year!

Caught a couple of nice perseids last night too. Just finished packing for the Perseid observing trip. Looking forward to it!

Cheers,
Bill.

[leolion]

Windoze SP3 in use via KWorld USB2. Doing email etc whilst UFO Free was running!Next run will be just UFOFree Capture and 'backgound'.
What is a clear night ? I hope to see some Perseid action this year. Two reasonable NLC sessions and lots of 2 to 3 am quick outdoor checks with negative results . PS Hi to misa too

[stewartw]

Hi All,

I too am running UFOCapture but am in the process of switching one of the cameras to MetRec (http://www.metrec.org/) in order to automatically determine limiting magnitude data (this has to be done manually at present by having UFOCapture acquire a few seconds of video every 15 minutes then reviewing the video to determine the faintest visible stars).

I asked SonotaCo a few months back if he planned to incorporate this functionality but unfortunately I don't think he is able to commit the time

Best regards

William

[leolion]

Welcome, StewartW, . We've the Lyrids coming up in April . I've only ca 3.5 hrs this month on video and that before midnight. Just the one trail so far with the moon just out of the field , stacks of lens caustics & internal reflections ( 3.8 mm f 0.8 lens) on a Watec 902H .
As an aside have a look here maccastro.wikispaces.com/ for the Tuesday April 3 rd talk by Peter McLeish on Red Sprites . , Sonato Co is quite interested in sprite phenomena !

[stewartw]

Thanks Len,

I was beginning to doubt if there were any other video meteor observers out there in the UK as the usual forums had drawn a blank. I had setup a Yahoo forum (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/vidmet/) but again it's very quiet.

Should I post details of this on the Yahoo forum to see if there is interest in having everyone come over here ... it would make sense if everyone congregated in the same place.

I did have a note from Andrew Greenwood (Chair of MaccAstro) about the talk ... will try and make it over.

In the meantime is anyone here a member of tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/meteorobs/ ... I applied months ago but the membership is still awaiting approval - not sure what is going on

Best regards

William

[BillW]

Hi William,

I think you've made an excellent observation (is that a pun...!)

Video observing seems to have crept into the scene without much co-ordination as such.
However I too didn't think that there were many, if any video observers around when I started a few years back. That is one reason I migrated towards the IMO rather than say the BAA. On the IMO site there is a section about video observing so right away there is an avenue to follow. However having recently joined the BAA I've had no response from the official section email route and the meteor section web page is looking a bit dated. I now know, for example, that Brian who was the Scotland/North England contact stopped doing this a number of years(!) ago but he is still on the list.

I started this forum as an extension from the NLC forum which had quite a lot of hits on the occasional meteor/astro posts I put up.

I have also found another couple of small independent forums. The question/ goal seems to be the same "is there anyone else out there doing this?"

You'll know from you're own readings eleswhere that there are actually lots of people doing highly interesting things!

Looking at the material on the BAA website I feel that they might have missed the boat a bit especially on the video side of things. I know that Neil was particularly keen to keep people actually observing visually but apart from special watch campaigns I feel it is becoming less appealing when there is a modern technology available. (I sometimes wonder myself if I'm just getting too lazy for "real" observing.) But as I see it from my own experience video IS now the prime meteor observing tool.

cheers,
Bill.

PS regarding meteorobs I was signed up almost instantly, maybe there's been a problem along the line, I'd fire off an email to the mod I'm sure that'll sort it.

[stewartw]

Mar 19, 2012 14:44:44 GMT BillW said:

I have also found another couple of small independent forums. The question/ goal seems to be the same "is there anyone else out there doing this?"

I'm the moderator for thre Vidmet group and am happy to migrate it over here ... how much activity is there on the other groups and would the other moderators want to consolidate? I'd agree with your point that to date the approach has been somewhat fragmented.


PS regarding meteorobs I was signed up almost instantly, maybe there's been a problem along the line, I'd fire off an email to the mod I'm sure that'll sort it.

I've tried emailing the group but no response - do you have the moderator's email address?

Best regards

William

[stewartw]

Apologies for my previous post - the formattign didn't come out as I expected

It should have looked like:

> I have also found another couple of small independent forums. The question/ goal seems to be the same "is there anyone else out there doing this?"

I'm the moderator for the Vidmet group and am happy to migrate it over here ... how much activity is there on the other groups and would the other moderators want to consolidate? I'd agree with your point that to date the approach has been somewhat fragmented.


> PS regarding meteorobs I was signed up almost instantly, maybe there's been a problem along the line, I'd fire off an email to the mod I'm sure that'll sort it.

I've tried emailing the group but no response - do you have the moderator's email address?

Best regards

William

[BillW]

Hi,

When I got my sign up notice the email ended with

... any problems contact [e-mail]

Hope that helps.

cheers,
Bill.

[stewartw]

Thanks Bill - will give it a whirl and let you know

William