I had a brief dabble in meteor spectroscopy back in 2005 but the tiny CCD I was using back then seriously limited the sky coverage for a given resolution.
http://www.threehillsobservatory.co.uk/astro/spectra_20.htm
The gradual increase in sensor size in the intervening years has improved matters somewhat as seen in Bill's impressive results here on the forum, and electronic imaging compared with the old film cameras has enabled a much higher hit rate and continuous monitoring, not just during meteor showers. The resolution/sky coverage equation still favours the old large format film cameras though. The latest cameras coming on the market seem to offer the possibility of closing this remaining gap. The QHY42 in development for example uses a back illuminated CMOS sensor almost an inch square with a claimed peak QE of 95%, read noise of 1.3e- all at a full frame rate of 48fps.
http://www.qhyccd.com/QHY42.html
It looks like it could be a dream camera for meteor spectroscopy, though the lenses to take advantage of it are not going to be exactly cheap !
Interesting times !
Robin
You are going to need a fast computer with a large disk Robin, and ideally some software like UFO that can read the files and auto-detect meteors for you. If not you will have a full-time job for those all to frequent cloudy nights!
However, I agree these new large, sensitive, low read noise CMOS sensors will open up all kinds of possibilities.
We have come a long way from DIY modified long exposure web cams the you worked with Robin.
Regards Andrew
Dread to think what the price will be for that camera.
....according to the QHY web site,but doing a Google search found an entry in aliexpress for this very camera with a price tag of.......£11,359.50 and a "Sorry this item no longer available" entered below it!
Wow £11k is certainly a lot of money for something that does not exist. I wonder if they accept bitcoin ;-)
You could buy a Celestron 14" Rowe-Ackerman for that!