Since the foundation of the Dutch Meteor Society in 1979 a photographic network, consisting of several stations using batteries of 35 mm cameras is operated during the periods of activity of major streams. In the early years f4.5/75mm Lubitel cameras were used, but nowadays batteries of Canon T-70 cameras equipped with high quality FD f/1.8-50 mm optics are in use at nearly all stations. The larger stations (four at present) use about 20 of these cameras, covering almost the entire sky visible from the observational site. Between 1980 and 1995, 998 meteors were photographed multistation. All photographic records have been measured and reduced.
![[Battery of 50 mm SLR camera's in use during the Perseids 1989 at Meterik]](photo01.jpg)
From these 998 multi station events 651 high precision photographic orbits
could be determined. Among these are 227 Perseid orbits, 138 Geminids,
45 Quadrantids, 16 Cygnids, 8 Capricornids, 3 Lyrids, 8 Orionids, 1 sigma
Hydrusid, 1 Lacertid, 1 upsilon Pegasid, 1 Virginid, 1 iota Aquarid, 3 Northern
delta Aquarids, 1 Southern delta Aquarid, 1 Northern Taurid and 10 Southern
Taurids, the rest being sporadic meteors.
A complete overview of all photographic orbits and detailed analysis is
planned for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics
in summer 1997.
Old style set-up of 50 mm SLR camera's in summer 1989 while observing the Perseids
at Meterik in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands. This set-up manufactured by
Peter Jenniskens (now employed at NASA-Ames)
![[the old-fashioned way of measuring negatives at the technical university Twente]](xy-tut.jpg)
From 1980 untill the start of 1994 measurements were carried out at the Jena Astrorecord
measuring table of the Leiden Observatory. Since 1994 the Dutch Meteor Society
makes use of the Astrorecord measuring software, developed by our member
Marc de Lignie. The negatives are transferred to
Kodak Photo CD (TM) and measurements
can be done from these CD's with the same accuracy as with the Jena Astrorecord measuring
device (20 arc seconds typically for good quality negatives), which is still
used for the measurement of larger scale negatives on 6x6 and larger format.
The old-fashioned way of measuring negatives at the technical university Twente.
The first set of 360 orbits will be implemented in the next edition of the IAU photographic meteor database, edited by B.A. Lindblad (Lund Observatory, Sweden).
Please refer to our DMS FTP-site to find lots of high quality photographs.
