A New Bolide Station at the High Tatra Mountains

Abstract

The European Fireball Network (EN) is operating since 1963 and one of its stable stations, from the very beginning, is the station at the Skalnate Pleso Observatory in the High Tatras. The station is sited at a height of 1788 m. More than 2900 expositions has been made at the Skalnate Pleso station since 1964 and among them one significant and spectacular event was recorded––bolide Turji-Remety in 2001 followed by a fall of about 450 kg meteorite (Spurny and Porubcan [in: Warmbein (ed.) Asteroids Comets Meteors, 2002]). A systematic search for the meteorite was unsuccessful. The new station having an ideal horizon will be operating since July 2007 on the top of Lomnicky Stit (2636 m above the sea level). This station will be equipped with an Autonomous Fireball Observatory of the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, which are already utilized in the Czech part of the EN for several years.