Techniques for positional measurements of telescopic meteor TV images

Abstract

We present the results of our positional reduction of the observational material obtained using a meteor patrol based on a Schmidt telescope and a TV CCD detector. More that 1000 telescopic meteors were recorded in three years of meteor patrolling. Techniques for the cataloging and positional reduction of 3050 TV images with meteor trails are described. We have developed a technique for measuring the images of reference stars to determine the rectangular coordinates in the image frame. We discuss the achieved accuracy of determining the equatorial coordinates of reference and check stars by Turner’s method (of the order of a few arcseconds). We have developed software that allows the rectangular coordinates of meteor trajectory points to be determined after the meteor image reduction. These coordinates are used to determine the equatorial coordinates of the poles of the great circles of meteor trajectories (the angular length is not less than 15′ with an accuracy of at least 4′. We consider the possibility of using Stanyukovich’s method to determine the equatorial coordinates of radiants for non-basis meteor observations. The accuracy of determining the radiant coordinates has been estimated to be 4′–5′. Prospects for obtaining the kinematic characteristics of meteor particles are discussed.