A practical method for the analysis of meteor spectra

The analysis of meteor spectra (photographic, CCD or video recording) is complicated by the fact that spectra obtained with objective gratings are curved and have a nonlinear dispersion. In this paper it is shown that with a simple image transformation the spectra can be linearized in such a way that individual spectra over the whole image plane are parallel and have a constant, linear dispersion. This simplifies the identification and measurement of meteor spectral lines. A practical method is given to determine the required image transformation.