Bright object passing over South Estonia's skies picked up by volunteer camera network
A brilliant celestial object briefly illuminated the skies over Tartu and South Estonia Sunday morning, Maaleht reported.
That said, one would have had to have been up bright and early for a Sunday to have seen it – at 5:45 a.m., as the fireball streaked north to south, leaving a glowing trail which lingered for a minute or more, and was captured on camera.
The camera this time was not merely the type which comes as a smartphone feature, and the picture was not taken by a member of the public – but with a device called AllSky7, specifically dedicated to capturing interesting celestial objects.
Viljam Takis, who manages the camera, said while it is the first device of its kind in Estonia, AllSky7 is part of a much larger worldwide network.
"This is the first node of such a network in Estonia, located in Tartu — a system of eight cameras for detecting and filming meteors," he said, noting that by employing trigonometry the Estonian camera can coordinate with those in Latvia in "calculating the orbit of a celestial body and its landing location on Earth,"
As such, Sunday's phenomenon was also picked up by several cameras in Latvia, and the large flash and tail in fact make the celestial body a comet, Maaleht reported, originating from the outer regions of the solar system and composed mainly of ice, solid carbon dioxide, and various inorganic and organic compounds.
The AllSky7 Fireball Network was launched in Germany in 2018 and consists of stations located across Europe, and in some cases further afield, including in the U.S., New Zealand and Antarctica.
More cameras would need to be installed across Estonia for the network to get a better foothold here, including in Harju County or the north of the country, as well as on the islands, Takis went on.
This can be done relatively inexpensively and simply, just a location on a high point with an open horizon and a solid, stable mount, and with no significant light pollution, as well as a constant and reliable internet connection and stable power supply and adequate weather protection for the tech is all that is needed, Takis said.
Those interested can contact the system's administrators, he added.
The AllSky7 network picked up a similar sighting over Europe earlier this month too.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
Source: Maaleht
