Having a $100 meteor station in our hands (check out our first log), we realized there is a broader issue with meteor astronomy that could be solved. Currently, there are many separate meteor networks, often on national levels. Each one uses different combinations of software, data reduction routines and storage format. Paradoxically, data is often shared by amateur networks, while government funded (with public money!) networks keep their data as a hidden treasure.

Meteor radiants plotted on a map of the whole sky (SonotaCo and CMN data). Meteor showers are represented by high-density areas of the same color (Perseids are the orange blob at the upper-center).

Regardless of what we humans think, universe doesn’t care about national borders. If we were to set out to understand meteors, and through them our Solar System, these limitations cannot get in our way. A truly global network is needed. Such large network raises problems that can only be solved with community effort and open solutions. We are strong proponents of open data, which is still a taboo topic in meteor science.

As the goal price of a single system is very affordable, we hope that many amateur astronomers, hackers, citizen scientists and students will be interested in the project. The system is envisioned to be very simple to install, use and maintain, with minimal knowledge of astronomy and computer use. We aim to expand that knowledge and introduce people to science and show them the importance of meteor astronomy and foremost - programming.

We want to provide every high school or university that is interested one or more of these systems, and form a student science team which will work on data collection and processing. As the data will be shared via a central data hub, groups will be encouraged to cooperate with other participants on the project.

On the other side, many amateur astronomers buy specialized equipment, expensive all-sky cameras and record meteors for their own satisfaction. We are here to offer a low-priced solution with free software which will enable them to fulfill their satisfactions and yet provide useful data to the community.