Hi Jack/Eric,
Thanks, it’s taken a decade to get it all together and make it fairly routine. If you look through my other meteor video’s on YouTube you’ll see one of the developments over the years. Doesn’t seem like ten years, I can still remember seeing that very first really crude spectrum at 320×240 resolution and thinking this is the future. When you look at the numbers it is staggering the immense jump that has happened. HUNDREDS of hours over decades to record photographically just those few exceptionally bright fireballs producing spectra. Now, even at this time of year I get several per night (when it’s clear ;-() and dozens during meteor showers.
Now that the pros are using my type of video system they get even more since they run a lot more cameras from considerably better sites! Looking at the journals, meteor spectroscopy papers are now regular. The game is now trying to build up classifications with a large number of spectra that all look pretty similar. The first papers on this have already appeared. The differences are there but it’s a subtle game at that.
cheers,
Bill.