CAMERA SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR OBSERVING OBJECTS AT GREAT DISTANCES, IN PARTICULAR FOR MONITORING TARGET OBJECTS AT NIGHT, IN MIST, DUST OR RAIN

摘要

The invention relates to a camera system and a method for observing objects at great distances, in particular for monitoring target objects (1) at night, in mist, dust or rain from an observation distance of for example 30 to 40 km. The camera system optionally comprises a pivotable target tracking mirror (14), a concave primary mirror (4) comprising a long focal length and a convex secondary mirror (5), said mirrors forming together a mirror telescope (4, 5, 6), optionally a Barlow lens system (6), an IR-sensitive image sensor (22) located on the image plane (2) of the mirror telescope, a controllable high-speed shutter system (23) for the image sensor (22), controllable IR-illumination means (11) for illuminating the object (1) to be observed by IR-illumination pulses (12) of several different colours, and a control device (ST) for the co-ordinated control of the IR-illumination means (11) and the high-speed shutter system (23), in order to record multi-spectral images by means of the image sensor (22), said images being captured according to gated view technology.