The Meteorite Catcher from Bullerby

When Roger Svensson installed an Axis camera to overlook his garden in the little Swedish village of Svensköp he did not think he would one day record objects from space or become a media star. Svensköp is reminiscent of the famous Swedish Author Astrid Lindgren’s idyllic village of Bullerby, the setting for four of her children’s books. However, Roger has been troubled by thieves in the past, and decided to install the AXIS 211, a small network camera recording into an Axis Camera Station that includes motion detection software. The motion detection software means the camera only starts recording when unusual movements are detected. Roger never dreamt that this could possibly include meteorites.

Roger was visiting his brother, who lives nearby, when they suddenly noticed a very strong, strange light. At first they thought it was fireworks. After their sister called to ask them if they had also seen this phenomena, they started to investigate further. On the website of the Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskans, they discovered that the light had actually been a meteorite. Only when he heard that Sydsvenskans was looking for photographic evidence of the incident did Roger Svensson remember his Axis network camera. However, the chance that it had recorded something seemed small. So imagine his surprise when he discovered that the camera had recorded the whole incident, and in crystal clear image quality! He sent the video to Sydsvenskans, who posted it on their website where more than 325,000 people would see it.

After the video was posted, Roger’s phone rang nonstop. Major Swedish newspapers interviewed him and scientists expressed their interest. Roger became a reluctant celebrity overnight because his network video camera recorded the rare occurrence of a meteorite entering the atmosphere and impacting the Earth.

The video of the meteorite can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX6KXsdGsR0
More info about the AXIS 211 can be found at: http://www.axis.com/products/cam_211/index.htm

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