A 5-years fireball monitoring experience of an Astronomical Association Operating a high-sensitivity video station in the framework of the Spanish meteor netxork

Abstract

A continuous monitoring of meteors and fireballs appeared all over Spain is being made currently from 25 stations operated in the framework of the Spanish Meteor and Fireball Network (SPMN) [1-4]. This observational challenge involves the re- cording over a very large surface area of about 500,000 km 2 . In order to achive this goal, state-of-the- art CCD and video cameras are operated by members and collaborators of the SPMN. Only few stations are operated by amateur astronomers that have demon- strated its capacity to keep a continuous work and sometimes capable to find their own fundings to set up the stations. One nice exampl e is the Folgueroles video station operated by the Agrupació Astronómica d’Osona (AAO) that is monitoring the night sky for meteor and fireball events since 2009. Ours is only one of the seven stations curren tly operational in Catalonia, but one of the most productive thanks to the human effort provided by AAO memb ers. The other Catalan stations of the SPMN network are operated by the In- stitute of Space Sciences (CSIC-IEEC), and a research group of the UPC Electrical Engineering Departament.