The discussion about lightning detectors got me thinking about other
possible ways of building one. The link posted with the schematic
using three op-amps and infra-red photodiode looked elegant in its
simplicity, and no doubt sounds very effective.
http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~kbagschi/blitze.shtml
But being a curious tinkerer type, I was wondering about other ways of
detecting a lightning strike. Other versions of lightning detectors
use the RF emitted down in the VLF band, either near 10 kHz, or up
around 300 kHz. This wouldn't work as well for photographic purposes,
because likely a detector like this would be basically
omni-directional, as well as sensitive to lightning strikes that are
not visible (clouds, buildings, etc...) But perhaps this type of
detector could be used in conjunction with an optical sensor to reduce
the number of false triggers (with greater complexity).
I started reading a bit about lightning spectroscopy, and a few sources
indicated that lightning was a strong source of UV light, around 400
nm. I was wondering if anyone has experimented with lightning
detectors at different wavelengths (IR, UV, visible), perhaps it might
be interesting to build a detector like the one above with different
photo-diodes, and use some method to record time delay and sensitivity
to choose the most sensitive and fastest reacting photo-diode.
Just some thoughts on the ultimate lightning detector....
Marten
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