Renovation of the astronomic equipment

http://meteoros.astromalaga.es/2021/02/18/dos-bolas-de-fuego-sobre-extremadu

The cameras of our "Network for Detection" of the Málaga University and the Association for Astronomy in Málaga are equipped with a fisheye lens in order to capture the whole sky. The focus is obtained by screwing the fisheye  lens more or less in the camera. In order to lock it in, we use flat rings whose thickness is exactly adapted to the focus. We first thought that the easiest way to reach focusing would be to produce the rings on a 3 D- printer ad hoc instead of having to add or take away rings of different thickness.
As a matter of fact, it was the easiest way, but we had not taken in account that the weather conditions, especially the variation in temperature between
night and day and in moisture level in the air would damage the material produced by the 3D printer.
Unfortunately, the moment came and the camera lost the focus and photos as well as videos became out of focus. As an example, you can see in the photo 20200926-013024.14000.jpg  that the circles, more or less illuminated are stars out of focus.

Under this circumstances, only the very strong illuminated objects passing close to the Dehesa San Francisco could be recorded; the weaker, less focused objects were not recorded by the chip of the camera.
For comparison: two videos, from the Dehesa San Francisco (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWMkRzFd4Kg) and Sierra de Fuentes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BND6wc98uvY) (Province Cáceres). In the first video the meteor appears fuzzy and disappears to the top left whereas in the video from Sierra de Fuentes you can see a clear-cut point which moves on the right on a spatial trajectory.

It was one of the few cases where bolides were recorded by cameras on other locations as well as on the Dehesa San Francisco. Normally, the system would
not have reacted due to the weak illumination caused by the bad focus.
 
Now, the focus is fixed and - as can be seen in the picture 20210212-193027.png  - there is a new photo with the focused camera. Next to it, a star chart from Stellarium to compare with showing the night sky with stars.

We tank the ATREL team for their support and cooperation!