Meteors and Meteor Showers as Observed by Optical Techniques

Optical observations are one of the most important sources of data for meteor science. Visual observation was the only method used for centuries and remains an important branch of meteor astronomy for monitoring daily shower activity. Photography became an important tool in the second half of the 20th century, later followed by television and video. Direct and spectral observational techniques have experienced significant progress in the last two decades. Today, all these techniques provide valuable data on meteors and meteor showers. The separate experiments of past decades have evolved into multi-instrumental campaigns which can significantly increase scientific output from observations. Combining data can provide more information about such events than photographic or video records alone. The importance of optical observations has been realized in many branches of meteor astronomy. Visual and video observations of meteor shower activity are often used for validation of meteor stream models. Models of meteoroid structure and fragmentation are based on photographic and video data. Meteorite falls are often optically recorded from multiple sites to determine strewn field locations.