Bill W

Hi, thanks!, it's just a ZWO astro camera, I use a few different types, 25mm cctv lens and a 600 groove/mm grating held in a old filter ring. The main thing required is patience (and a bit of luck).
Some observers get many 100's of video meteors from a shower, I get 1 like this!

14.08.2025 23:49 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

The run up to the Perseid peak was not good. However last night I got one good fireball spectrum showing the typical characterisitics of the Perseids. Strong ionised Ca and ionised Si and H emission.
#science #astronomy

13.08.2025 08:32 — 👍 6    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

Glad to see you here @imometeors.bsky.social !
#astronomy #meteors #fireballs

06.08.2025 14:53 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Noctilucent clouds seen from North Ayrshire, Scotland around 2am on the morning of 29th June 2025.

Some nice #noctilucentclouds last night seen from North Ayrshire. If you see #NLC post your pictures and observations on the NLC Observers Forum ed-co.net/nlcnet/

29.06.2025 17:00 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

What is happeneing is straight out of 1984, with no pretence at all anymore. Doublethink and Newspeak are here and are now real. It is frightening.

06.04.2025 21:16 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

It is just utter shit isn't it! Musk is destroying everything he touches. He is also committing a huge act of global environmental vandalism. The continual de-orbiting of his sats is depositing a lot of metallic particles into the ionosphere and mesosphere. Few are paying attention to this!
☹️

04.04.2025 15:27 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Bright meteor in the constellation Cygnus (1)

Bright meteor in constellation Cygnus (2)

Synthetic spectrum of meteor 1

Synthetic spectrum of meteor 2

The power of spectroscopy! two lovely bright meteors (fireballs?) that look pretty much the same to the eye but...
Turns out they are completely different. The first is made of rock the second pure iron! #astronomy #meteors #fireballs
Meteor 1 is Type A, meteor 2 is type B.

04.04.2025 15:12 — 👍 5    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Hi, as comets are covered in Planetary Science can we have a subfeed for meteors and fireballs? Thanks, Bill.

28.02.2025 22:31 — 👍 9    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

The observers in the UKMON network caught the Type B Fe meteor and determined an orbit.
Low inclination of 10 degrees and very slow at 10.6km/sec. Plot courtesy of the UKMON data base (Thanks UKMON!).
Orbit indicates probable asteroidal origin. #astronomy #meteors @europlanetmedia.bsky.social

28.02.2025 22:27 — 👍 5    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

A beautiful night and quite a rare capture. A lovely Type B pure iron meteor spectrum #astronomy #meteor #fireball
The iron lines are very prominent in the blue/green part of the spectrum and the yellow/orange part is mostly thermal emission with fewer discrete lines.

27.02.2025 12:21 — 👍 10    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Another super high res meteor spectrum. Zero order video is here youtu.be/dEdURA38M9o?...
First time I've managed to fully resolve the Mg Triplet!
#meteors #fireballs

17.01.2025 22:27 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Time to put the lights on my big dish antenna... happy winter solstice. #astronomy #hamradio
... and a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year too.

21.12.2024 23:31 — 👍 23    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Brilliant stuff! I worked briefly in Australia at the AAO/UKSTU in the early 90's and have been back "downunder" several time since.
Looking forward to seeing the southern skies again someday....
You don't realise what a fantastic night sky you have, been envious ever since I first saw it!😉😀

17.12.2024 16:17 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

...and another two... #geminidmeteorshower #astronomy #planetaryscience #meteors #fireballs #skyandtelescope

16.12.2024 11:47 — 👍 5    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

The article in S+T says 80% of Geminids are sodium free and my spectrum is unusual. I think this is a myth! I've NEVER captured any Geminid spectrum that has been completely sodium free! #geminidmeteorshower A few from this year..., all with sodium emission (Na)! #astronomy #planetaryscience

16.12.2024 11:38 — 👍 9    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

... and since the weather had been so miserable I decided to try some #meteorscatter on UHF.
At 432MHz, MS its more difficult the EME nowadays! Managed to QSO with SM6FHZ at 1044km and OK1TEH at 1439km. Took 2h 5m to complete with 6FHZ and 1h 35m for 1TEH!😮
#hamradio #amateurradio

15.12.2024 08:42 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

After miserable weather, it cleared for just a couple of hours and luckily right at the peak of the Geminid meteor shower!🙂
Caught about 30 Geminids and this gorgeous spectrum of a Geminid fireball on HiReMS. #astronomy #meteors #fireball #geminidmeteorshower #planetaryscience

15.12.2024 08:16 — 👍 13    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Fame at last...!? 😉😂 Some of my meteor spectra have been used to illustrate an article in Decembers Sky and Telescope!
#astronomy #planetaryscience #meteors #fireballs

09.12.2024 22:44 — 👍 13    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

I'm a meteor astronomer who has developed the most advanced and highest resolution meteor spectroscopy system in the world... probably. 😜
Have been observing meteors and investigating related phenomena for over 40 years!

03.12.2024 00:50 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

yes

03.12.2024 00:46 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Raw spectrum of fireball.

Synthetic colourised spectrum to give an impression of the spectrum would appear to the eye.

Wavelength calibrated (but not instrument corrected) spectrum plot of wavelength versus relative intensity.

@bot.astronomy.blue signup
Captured a gorgeous full visible range #fireball spectrum this evening on a HiReMS system. Classic Type A, with strong Mg and Na lines. #meteors @royalastrosoc.bsky.social
@aasoffice.bsky.social @skyandtelescope.bsky.social
Just beautiful!☄️😃

03.12.2024 00:45 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Another beautiful spectrum! A typical rocky Type A with strong magnesium, sodium and iron lines.
The UK Meteor Data Archive classes this as a Southern Chi Orionid, absolute mag of -4 #Fireball #meteors
Fantastic!

29.11.2024 00:37 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Despite the full moon, the Leonid meteor shower has produced some good results.
I captured this unusual spectrum this morning. 😃
It has been identified as a Leonid thanks to the reports on the UKMON website.👍
Lots of interesting lines to be investigated...

18.11.2024 17:10 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Here's a synthetic colourised spectrum of the fireball image I posted. Spans ~420nm to 591nm. Incredible detail! Most of the lines here are from iron atoms. #fireballs #meteors

15.11.2024 19:18 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Hello Bluesky! I'm an astronomer in Scotland. Here's the most detailed spectrum of a meteor ever captured! Very lucky catch and incredibly detailed. #meteors #fireball @aasoffice.bsky.social

15.11.2024 12:02 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0