UKMDA

Cardiff Astronomical Society (CAS) has been recording meteor, sprite and fireball events since joining the United Kingdom Meteor Observation Network (UKMON) in November 2013.

Please note UKMON ceased existence on the 16th November 2023 with the UK monitoring activity and archive continuing uninterrupted with UK Meteor Data Analysis (UKMDA).

Initially this was accomplished using two systems (Stations) based on analogue cameras and PCs.

CAS Camera 1 is located at Llantwit Fardre under the supervision of Martin Chick, the axis of the field of
view is to the East. This station is still operational and provides data to UKMON, whilst events are provided in real-time, intermediate data has to be processed and deposited into the database some time post event.

CAS Camera 2 was located at the CAS Observatory in Dyffryn Gardens, the axis of the field of view was to the North-West. This station is no longer operational with the last data recorded in October 2020.

A new station (UK005L) was established at the start of 2022 once again at Dyffryn Gardens, but this time mounted on the north side of the Cory Education Centre. The new station uses a low-light digital video camera with an associated Raspberry Pi microcomputer and software reporting data automatically to UKMON and to the Global Meteor Network (GMN). The data from the camera is processed daily for matching events with other station cameras which results in reliable trajectory calculations rather than a single observation. The data is analysed in the UK by UKMON and in Canada by Global Meteor Network at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Western Ontario.

CAS Camera 3 (UK008V) was established at the Bannau Brecheiniog NP Visitor Centre, Libanus at the end of April 2024. It uses the same technology and procedures as the camera at Dyffryn Gardens.

The UKMDA group is a semi-organised group of amateur astronomers who like to run a meteor detection camera as a hobby. Our group is not a registered charity or a non-profit organisation. We are just a group of amateur astronomers, citizen-scientist that some call us.

Picking up a meteorite on the ground is our ultimate goal. Working closely with the Natural History Museum and the Fireball Network we are prepared for meteorite falls as exemplified by the recovery of meteorite material on the 28 February 2021 Winchcombe, Gloucestershire. UKMON currently has 170+ cameras across the UK and now has the ability to calculate a fall including an estimated area for a recovery search.

The Global Meteor Network is a world-wide organization of amateur and professional astronomers alike, whose goal is to observe the night sky using low-light video cameras and produce meteor trajectories in a coordinated manner.

This section of the CAS website aims to highlight and inform about the activities of the two Cardiff-based cameras which contribute to the UKMON / GMN.

29th August 2022 - Dyffryn Gardens
UK005L_20220829_194037_711716_stack_80_meteors

UK005L Camera on the end of the Cory Education Centre, NT Dyffryn Gardens

UK008V installed at the Bannau Brecheiniog Visitor Centre, Libanus, Powys. The camera has a horizontal view of approximately 90 degrees with the centre of view to the SE.

GLOBAL METEOR NETWORK REPORT 2023 click here

For the entry on the United Kingdom go to Section 5.32

The GMN got started with 13 cameras in 2020 in the UK and this number rapidly grew to 97 in 2021. The largest expansion came in 2022 when 169 cameras were contributing paired meteors. The network continued to grow throughout 2023 when 261 cameras contributed data . The number of orbits increased from 78652 in 2022 to 84688 orbits in 2023. The vast majority of these cameras are part of the UK Meteor Network which now provides complete coverage of the UK and Eire.

UKMDA

Poster describing CAS, UKMON & GMN activity undertaken by Cardiff Astronomical Society.

Where to look for images and data

The best source of images, associated data and reports for activity in the night sky above the United Kingdom is via the UKMDA website.
Below is a guide to some initial links to follow:

Realtime images provided from the UKMDA network of cameras Livestream, Click Search to get the most recent data. Pick a date range, time range and/or station to filter the data. At most, 100 images will be displayed.

Status of all UKMDA cameras can be found on the Global Meteor Network weblog.

Suggested cameras to monitor:
CAS at Dyffryn Gardens, Vale of Glamorgan named dyffryn ne UK005L (view to north 353.16˚)
CAS at Llantwit Fadre, Rhondda Cynon Taf named MC1 (view to east)
Corntown, Vale of Glamorgan named corntown s UK000T (view to south-east 159.52˚)
Corntown, Vale of Glamorgan named corntown sw UK001K (view to the west 212.61˚)
Rhiwbina, Cardiff named rhiwbina ne UK0030 (view to the north - east ?.??˚)
Llanon, Ceredigion named llanon n UK0042 (view to the north 7.15˚)
Llanon, Ceredigion named llanon s UK0089 (view to the south east 156.14˚)
Newtown, Powys named newtown e UK0029 (view to the east 156.14˚)

Many topics can be found at the UKMDA data archive tab there are links to camera coverage, camera status, a map of detections plus more by drilling down.


Daily Match Example for UK005L Dyffryn 10/11 September 2022

Today we examined 9078 detections, found 217 potential matches and confirmed 146 in 01h16m.
Up to the 100 brightest matched events are shown below. Note that this may include older data for which a new match has been found.
Click each link to see analysis of these events.

This example has 12 events where the data gathered at UK005L Dyffryn matched with other stations around the UK.

Event Shower Classification Visable Magnitude Stations
20220911_025341.203_UK spo -1.5 Ringwood Wilcot Wilcot Marshside Dyffryn NLObservatory
20220910_204314.858_UK SPE -1.1 Tackley Ringwood Tackley Chard Billingborough Bath Altrincham Searby Rhiwbina YeovilMarsh Billingborough Wilcot Wilcot OddDown Dursley Marshside Dyffryn Alvechurch Bassingham NLObservatory
20220910_233102.578_UK spo -0.8 Tackley Chard Billingborough Bath Wilcot OddDown OddDown Whiteparish Dyffryn Alvechurch
20220910_210520.530_UK SPE -0.7 Tackley Billingborough Dursley Dyffryn Marshside Ludlow Beverley Retford
20220910_231617.338_UK SIC -0.5 Ringwood Tackley Chard Billingborough Bath Rhiwbina YeovilMarsh Blakeney Wilcot OddDown OddDown Dursley Dyffryn NLObservatory
20220911_022554.144_UK SPE -0.5 Llannon Dyffryn NLObservatory
20220910_224200.366_UK spo -0.0 Tackley Ringwood Tackley Chard Bath YeovilMarsh Wilcot OddDown Dyffryn Alvechurch NLObservatory
20220911_041555.649_UK spo -0.0 Dyffryn NLObservatory
20220911_040936.076_UK SZE 0.1 Dyffryn NLObservatory
20220911_033903.729_UK spo 0.3 Dyffryn NLObservatory
20220910_232454.347_UK spo 0.4 Tackley Tackley Bath Rhiwbina Wilcot OddDown Dursley Dyffryn Alvechurch
20220911_031703.664_UK spo 0.5 Llannon Marshside Dyffryn

UKMON / GMN Camera Distribution Map @11/09/2022 171 Cameras
NB. Some locations have more than one camera

Archive of old material

Article on CAS UKMON Facility (old analogue approach - published in newsletter 174) Article