Automation of the Czech part of the European fireball network: Equipment, methods and first results

Abstract

In the last several years the manually operated fish-eye cameras in the Czech part of the European fireball Network (EN) have been gradually replaced with new generation cameras, the modern and sophisticated completely autonomous fireball observatories (AFO), which were recently developed in the Czech Republic. The main motivation for construction of this new observing system was to continue in regular fireball observations and to make these observations more complex and efficient. In this paper we briefly describe basic design and work of this new instrument and its deployment at the Czech stations of the EN. The current dislocation of the individual stations and their equipment is also discussed. Along with this new modern instrument we developed also new software for measurement of photographic negatives which makes this time consuming work more efficient and easier. The AFOs provide us with data on fireballs far richer and more interesting than those we were able to get in the past. This is illustrated by the cases of two recently observed fireballs which were recorded by the AFOs. We describe the high precision of all the measureded values as well as the very detailed information about light curves in both cases. © 2007 International Astronomical Union.