Tag Archives: sky camera

“Aurora” over Providence

Note: this was originally published on March 6. It was updated on March 8 to include new information.

On March 6 we received local reports that the aurora was observed in New England just before sunrise. One of our visitors described seeing it from a rest area on Route 495 near Boston. There was another report from Vermont. Our automated all sky camera was running the entire night and captured the view above Providence. Also visible is the International Space Station (ISS) streaking through the sky about 500 miles from Providence as the planets Mars and Saturn shine brilliantly in the south.

ISS and aurora
A 10 second exposure taken March 6, 2016 at 4:54:18 AM EST. This image has been processed to make it easier to see the stars.

During the night the camera recorded 3,750 images of the sky. North is at right, west at bottom, and the zenith is at center. The field of view is about 140 by 90 degrees, capturing most of the sky above Providence. The images can be processed to produce a time lapse movie that shows 5 minutes of changes in the sky per second of video. Click on the image below to watch an excerpt. A number of artificial satellite can be seen streaking through the sky just before dawn.

Our sky camera has been in operation since the spring of 2008. We’ve never captured images like this before.

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The dark side of the Moon

Automated instruments on the roof of Ladd Observatory monitored the sky during the total lunar eclipse of Sept. 27-28, 2015. First there is a wide field sky camera. It has a fish-eye lens which can capture an image of most of the sky above Providence. The second is a sky brightness meter which is used to monitor light pollution.

Eclipse sky
An image from the sky camera during the total phase of the eclipse. (Click on the image to see a time lapse video.)

The full Moon is usually so bright that it overwhelms the sensitive camera causing the images to be overexposed. During the eclipse the Moon was dark enough that the only artifact in the image above is a thin vertical line where one column of the digital camera was saturated by the moonlight. The camera is more sensitive than the human eye allowing the Milky Way to be seen during the total phase of the eclipse. The time lapse video contains 3,625 still images. Each second of the movie shows about 5 minutes of changes in the sky.

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2012 Geminid Meteor Shower

The Geminid meteor shower peaked on Dec. 13 – 14, 2012. At Ladd Observatory we operate an automated camera on the roof which takes an image of most of the sky every 10 seconds. There were many small meteors and a number of medium meteors that we captured during the night. Here are the four best images. Each is a 10 second exposure with a field of view of about 140 by 90 degrees. North is at right and west is at bottom.

Watching the skies for meteors

There are some times during the year when a number of meteors can be seen in the sky. For example, the recent Quadrantid meteor shower during the early morning hours of January 4th. But late January is not usually a time that you would expect to see meteors. It is possible, though.

At the Ladd Observatory we’ve been testing a sky camera to watch for interesting phenomena in the night sky. The camera has a field of view of 90 by 140 degrees which can take an image of nearly the entire sky every 10 seconds.

sky camera
The small gray weather proof box in front of the dome on the roof of Ladd Observatory contains a digital all sky astronomy camera which is used to capture images of the night sky.

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2012 Quadrantids

There is a digital camera in a weather proof box mounted on the roof of Ladd Observatory. The camera has a wide field (“fish eye”) lens that can take an image of nearly the entire sky. North is to the right, and east is at top.

Tonight is the Quadrantid meteor shower. The camera has been running for most of the night taking 10 second exposures.

Quadrantid meteor
A bright Quadrantid meteor in  the southwest at 3:00:08 AM EST.

The first image shows a spectacular meteor in the same part of the sky as the planet Mars which is the bright dot behind the meteor.

We recorded 12 bright meteors between 1am and dawn. There are probably also a number of very dim meteors in the images from this morning but I haven’t had a chance to count those. The meteors were mostly seen between 1:38 and 3:10 am EST which is when the shower peaked. However, one of the two brightest meteors was seen much later.

Quadrantid meteor
A bright Quadrantid meteor in the northwest at 4:44:02 AM EST.