Dr Henry Soper operated a number of meteor cameras from his home on the Isle of Man. He used 220 format roll film which enabled more exposures per roll than 120 film. He was awarded the Merlin Medal in 1996 for his photography of bright meteors and their high-quality spectra, including obtaining - at the time - the most detailed spectrum of a fireball recorded from the UK, which was measured by Harold Ridley who identified 70 spectral lines.

Another trawl through Melvyn Taylor's slide boxes produced these photos of Henry and his battery of cameras, including his all-sky camera under its glass dome. Each of the latter's exposures would be tens of minutes in duration, so Henry mounted the small clock on the adjacent bracket (made from sections of Dexion) to record it in every image, its minute-hand marking out a dark sector as a way to timestamp the images. He was quite unconcerned about climbing the lightweight folding step ladder to perform regular maintenance.

Additional reading:

Automatic photography of bright meteors and spectra - Soper H. R., J. Br. Astron. Assoc. 104(1), 27-31 (1994)

The spectrum of a sporadic meteor - Ridley H. B., J. Br. Astron. Assoc. 104(1), 32-35 (1994)