Need Peace of Mind - Forums

Topic starter

Apr 3, 2023

As we come into another Spring and add on DST, I don't relish staying up long past my bedtime to do astrophotography. I've installed N.I.N.A. on my observatory PC computer and have managed to get everything set up. (I'm a Mac user). Aside from the challenges of learning to use N.I.N.A. my one big worry is unexpected rain during the night. I've researched online and I'm hoping some of you have had experience in this area.

My requirements are simple (I think). I need a device that will signal me in the bedroom that rain has started and I need to get outside and close the observatory.
I do not want to build something as electronics are not my thing.

There are several options on the market: Lunatico, Hydreon, etc. that do cloud watching, humidity and rain. None seem rain specific and don't elaborate as to how they signal rain is happening.

Suggestions would be appreciated.

Hank

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Nick Grundy

Apr 3, 2023

Hank, where are you at? do you get a lot of surprise rain? I'm no northern california and haven't had much of any issue. I just watch the weather pretty closely on clearoutside and it's been sufficient so far.

I love the nina advanced sequencer. I don't know how the guys do it staying out all night in the cold

Mossyback

Topic starter

Apr 3, 2023

Hi Nick,

I'm in southern Ontario, Canada. We're in between Lake Huron (25 km to the west) and Lake Erie (about 50 km to the east). I feel sorry for weather forecasters as being surrounded by these huge bodies of water make predication difficult. It's not uncommon to have rain showers occurring do to "lake effect". I'm waiting for a clear night to tune in and adjust the auto focuser and guiding and then I should be able to get some imaging done. I've had a dry run during the daytime and filter changes seem to work as well as a meridian flip.

I've read in the news about the crazy weather you folks have had this winter in Northern California. We've had a ridiculously mild winter with virtually no clear skies. I saw a weather map of N.A. showing (in colour ) days of sunlight for Jan. and Feb. We were a "black hole". We've had the least sunlight for those two months in 80 years!

Hank

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Chris Jensen

Apr 3, 2023

I use an app on my phone called Rain Alarm. You can set up a zone around your location at a set distance and the app monitors local weather radar and alerts if rain is coming into your monitoring zone.

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Scott Badger

Apr 4, 2023

Last spring I had a forecast of clear sky all night which held true except for one solitary cloud that popped up right above me, and rained. It was only a couple minutes before I got out to cover things up, but...... Actually getting my scope back tomorrow after finally sending it to Celestron to get the resulting streaks on both the corrector plate and primary cleaned. Anyhow, I searched hard for exactly what you're looking for but no luck. The best I came up with was this simple DIY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uwq6d6sHZJ8. If anything it's too sensitive and reacts even to dew.....my wife is not a fan. I then tried to step it up a notch with a Hydreon optical sensor, but my first attempt to wire it up failed due to my own deficient electrical skills. I haven't taken another stab at it since, but with spring turning, and a newly cleaned scope arriving, this is actually a good reminder to try again.....

I also use the Rain Alarm app on my phone. Not perfect but better than nothing. Anyhow, no matter what 'safeguards' are in place, after that night last spring, whenever I leave my rig imaging and go to bed, no matter how clear the sky an forecast is, I hear Clint Eastwood saying, "Do you feel lucky...."

Cheers,
Scott

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Daniel DeSclafani

Apr 4, 2023

Chris Jensen:
I use an app on my phone called Rain Alarm. You can set up a zone around your location at a set distance and the app monitors local weather radar and alerts if rain is coming into your monitoring zone.

I second rain alarm. It’s worked for me and saved me twice.

Jerry Gerber

Apr 4, 2023 · Edited: Apr 4, 2023

I know this won't work for everyone but being a long-time practitioner of meditation, what I do is after my imaging session starts and I am confident guiding is going well, I go inside and meditate, have decaffeinated tea, meditate, go outside every 30-60 minutes to check on things and then go back inside and meditate. I know, it's weird, because it's 3am and the wife is asleep. But I've got to say I really enjoy the quiet and darkness at that hour. All the neighbor's lights are off, there's barely a car driving by. Doing astrophotography at that hour brings me happiness and I am lucky I don't have to get up early to work as I'm mostly retired.

When I am done taking flats, I cover the whole rig with the Telegizmos cover and go to bed. In the morning I break it all down unless the weather is such that I can image two nights in a row. Of course I keep an eye on the weather, but usually rain doesn't suddenly occur in San Francisco without the forecast giving some prediction in percentages of the chances of rain.

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Jerry Gerber

Apr 4, 2023 · Edited: Apr 4, 2023

Daniel DeSclafani:
Chris Jensen:
I use an app on my phone called Rain Alarm. You can set up a zone around your location at a set distance and the app monitors local weather radar and alerts if rain is coming into your monitoring zone.

I second rain alarm. It’s worked for me and saved me twice.

If I could get it without ads I'd install it. I avoid ads as much as possible.

lensflaredk

Apr 4, 2023

Have anyone tried an optical sensor?
https://rainsensors.com/

Mossyback

Topic starter

Apr 4, 2023

I had a look at “rain sensors.com”. There doesn’t seem to be a way to send an auditory alarm from the observatory to the house. Perhaps I should see if ASCOM has any utilities that mention rain sensor uses.

Keith Egger

Apr 4, 2023

Rain Alarm has the option to pay a small fee to remove ads. I use it without ads and it’s a handy app.

Tom Zepf

Apr 6, 2023

This may be more effort and expense than you're interested in, but I have one of these (with a solo) and have it send alarms to Pushover on my phone if conditions get unsafe (rain, high winds). It's a pretty cool little device.

https://lunaticoastro.com/aag-cloud-watcher/

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Mossyback

Topic starter

Apr 6, 2023

Hi Tom,

I've been on their website and read their advertising. If you don't mind I'd like to ask you a few questions about the device(s).

1. How does the phone work into this? Does it call your phone when it senses rain?

2. I wear hearing aids but not at night. Is the alarm loud enough to wake a light sleeper?

3. Do you know if they have outlets in North America? (European company)

As you can see from the above, my concern is, can I get a signal from the device without having to run wires from the observatory to the house. As for cost, it would be much more expensive to have my equipment rained on.

I'm venturing into using N.I.N.A. with the idea that I can get more sleep. It defeats the purpose if I lie in bed awake all night worrying that it might rain.

I really appreciate your input.

Hank

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palaback

Apr 6, 2023

All you need is a weather station connected to wifi. I have a Davis weather station. You can set alarms for different temperatures or for rain events. It can call or send messages to my phone. This can be used for alerting freezing temps in greenhouses for example.

A. Wegdan

Apr 6, 2023

Hey Hank,

I was recently looking for a solution for this issue, and i came across this thread on cloudynightsit might be of some use to you.

CS

Bob Lockwood

Apr 6, 2023 · Edited: Apr 6, 2023

I'm lost hear,

Seams like you should be looking for a cloud sensor that will shutdown everything and close up the observatory at the first sigh of clouds.
If you wait tell the rain is falling, it's already to late!!

Mark

Apr 6, 2023

I know you don’t want it but….I have lunatico Cloudwatcher….I live by the sea…so my weather is super unpredictable like yours.
the cloudwatcher is tracking clouds, wind and likelihood of rain. It flags my roof motor and the whole thing parks the scope and closes the roof. Even if it doesn’t rain it’s playing safe and I don’t have to think about it - I just sleep!
Hope you find something that works for you!
M.

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Tom Zepf

Apr 7, 2023 · Edited: Apr 7, 2023

Hi Tom,

I've been on their website and read their advertising. If you don't mind I'd like to ask you a few questions about the device(s).

1. How does the phone work into this? Does it call your phone when it senses rain?

2. I wear hearing aids but not at night. Is the alarm loud enough to wake a light sleeper?

3. Do you know if they have outlets in North America? (European company)

As you can see from the above, my concern is, can I get a signal from the device without having to run wires from the observatory to the house. As for cost, it would be much more expensive to have my equipment rained on.

I'm venturing into using N.I.N.A. with the idea that I can get more sleep. It defeats the purpose if I lie in bed awake all night worrying that it might rain.

I really appreciate your input.

Hank

1. I use the Pushover app on my phone and both NINA and the CloudWatcher can be configured to send events to Pushover. You can configure the sound it makes.

2. The default alarm sound is more than loud enough to wake me.

3. No outlets in North America, but they are super easy to deal with from Spain. Excellent customer support and the shipping times are fairly reasonable.

All of this supposes you have an internet connection out in the observatory. Both the Solo and NINA will use the internet to send a message through the Pushover service.

The chain of events looks something like:

Something goes wrong in NINA (use the Ground Station plugin) -> Sends a message to Pushover -> Pushover sends message to your phone -> Alarm on the phone sounds

Cloudwatcher (Solo) detects "unsafe" (rain, wind, clouds, ...) -> Sends a message to Pushover -> Pushover sends message to your phone -> Alarm on the phone sounds

Hope this helps!

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Scott Badger

Apr 7, 2023

Is there any way to send PHD2's star lost alarm to a phone? Seems like we all already have a cloud/problem detection system in place….. That said, my one caught-out-in-the-rain event was the result of a single cloud overhead, and not where the telescope was pointing so guiding wasn't effected.

If clouds increase sometime during the night, I'd like to know about it to check what's happening, but I live in the mountains, so depending on temperature gradient and wind, there are often persistent clouds over some of the peaks most of the night, but clear otherwise. Or, sometimes it can be more cloudy than not, but with parts of the sky that are persistently clear. In any case, if I weren't willing to image between the clouds, I wouldn't get much imaging time at all…..

Cheers,
Scott

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Mossyback

Topic starter

Apr 7, 2023

Thanks for the help everyone. I got the rain alarm and it works well. I agree with Bob’s comment that a warning that it’s raining might be too late to get out to the observatory and close the lid. I think I’m going to invest in a Cloudwatcher as Nexdome in British Columbia carries them. It’s the easiest solution for me as I won’t have to deal with Customs and duties.

Hank

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Keith Egger

Apr 7, 2023

Back before I retired and moved across the country in 2019, I had a backyard observatory and used this as a cloud detector/alarm: a Phidget IR Temp Sensor (https://www.phidgets.com/?tier=3&catid=14&pcid=12&prodid=1041 ) combined with CloudDetector software (http://winfij.com/development/CloudDetector.html ) provided by John Winfield (http://winfij.com/) to control the device and alert me when it clouded over. Doesn't detect rainfall, but handy to know when the clouds were overhead. That was a few years ago and I still haven't rebuilt the observatory (will 2023 be the year?) so I just connected it up in my office and the software and IR detector still work on my Windows 10 computer. Phidgets also makes sensors to detect humidity, barometric pressure, temperature, etc. With a little programming experience you could set up a whole weather station.

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Mossyback

Topic starter

Apr 9, 2023

I just heard back from Lunatico in Spain. I’d asked for advice as to which of their products would best suit my situation. It is suggested that I get their new Pocket CW2 ($250). It will be available in N.A. sometime this month.

Hank

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Scott Badger

Apr 13, 2023

I just heard back from Lunatico in Spain. I’d asked for advice as to which of their products would best suit my situation. It is suggested that I get their new Pocket CW2 ($250). It will be available in N.A. sometime this month.

Hank

Hmmm.....ironic that, "It is not rain resistant"......

Cheers,
Scott