Despite all our technological advances, we still don’t understand much about the long-period comets, small asteroids, and streams of meteoroids hurtling around our cosmic neighborhood. In fact, Cameras for Allsky Meteor Surveillance (CAMS), the world's most comprehensive meteor-spotting network, has a blindspot over the Northeastern hemisphere. 

YOU can change this. If we raise just $25k, we can patch the gap in the CAMS network with a student-run observatory in India to ensure scientists have eyes on the skies everywhere 24/7. 

By funding this observatory, you’ll ensure planetary scientists don’t miss out on data about our solar system and empower computer science students who will help maintain the observatory and use the data collected for hands-on projects.

And all donations to this project are tax deductible! We've also already recieved a generous $5k donation from a passionate donor!

What We Need & What You Get

Donate today to help purchase the 48 cameras and computers needed to establish the observatory. You’ll ensure scientists have key data to help understand our solar system while empowering the next generation of computer scientists. Ensure we have eyes on the entire night sky 24/7!

The Details

CAMs technology

The observatory will be a part of the SETI Institute’s CAMS project, a global network of citizen-run CCTV cameras that captures data on meteor showers and meteorites. Typical observatories observe light to make findings, but CAMS records particles interacting with the Earth’s atmosphere. This is a unique and efficient way to study the streams of meteoroids in the path of comets and asteroids. To do this, CAMS uses low-light CCTV cameras at stations across the globe—548 in total. Currently, there are CAMS sites in the USA, Europe, United Arab Emirates, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, South Africa, Brazil, and Namibia.

Each station has 16 cameras, and each camera generates 10 Gb of data per night. When a meteor is detected against the star background, it must then be triangulated with at least two other stations to determine their trajectory and speed.

Meteor science

Meteors are the light caused by rocky objects in space when they hit Earth’s atmosphere. They range in size from dust grains to small asteroids, and when Earth crosses the streams of such objects, meteor showers occur. 

The CAMS network has used meteor shower data to detect the debris streams from comets in our solar system that have not yet been seen. This is especially important if the object could one day pose an impact threat to Earth.

The cameras on occasion also detect meteorite falls. Meteorites, the part of space rocks that survive passage through Earth's atmosphere, can help us understand how the planets formed and maybe even how life originated here on Earth. 

Machine learning