Daytime images of the Sprite-Watching camera installed at the

Loiano astronomical observatory

In sunlight conditions a new image is available every 5 min. Press “Reload” in your browser to refresh.

Directory with daily AVI files and here is the TRIGGERS logfile

Interesting links: DAVIS weather station in Loiano and Loiano webcam (via Roma)


Starting from April 2013 a MINTRON MTV-12V6H-EX-R B&W camera equipped with TAMRON 12VG412ASIR optics is operating from the roof of the 152cm telescope building at Loiano observatory (Lat. 44º 15' 33" N Long. 11º 20' 02" E 785 m a.s.l.). The camera is mounted on a fixed clamp. To know the pointing direction look at this PDF file. The main objective of the experiment is to contribute to detection and geo-location of Sprites and other Transient Luminous Events (TLEs, see the EuroSprite webpage and links therein). The camera interfaces with a PC running a software for detection of the frames affected by TLEs. This software is a modification by DIFA and DCI (University of Bologna) of the original version (c) 2004 by Thomas H. Allin (tha@oersted.dtu.dk). The time distance between subsequent frames is 20ms. The Sprite-Watching system operates only during the dark hours, in sunlight conditions the camera is operated as a webcam (see image above).


Here are some examples of TLEs detected with the Loiano Sprite-Watching system:


Sprite-related publications form the group operating the Sprite-Watching system at University of Bologna:


Last update: 15 March 2022 by M.Ridolfi