Hi there everyone! I'm in a very fortunate position–I'm in the midst of building a house on the South Island of NZ that has a pretty clear view to the south, so it's well suited to seeing the aurora australis. (We had a particularly good show last night, in fact). What I wonder is, is there a way to set up a camera to be permanently pointed southward and always shooting during nighttime hours so that if an aurora were to surprise us (or arrive in the middle of the night when I'm sleeping) I still have a chance of capturing it? I'm thinking of something like a small ZWO OSC camera with some sort of wide angle lens. Of course I'd need to check the footage regularly, and have a large enough disk drive to store the files on, but is this something that is doable? Any ideas?
Unusual question about aurora shooting
Well Written Engaging
sounds like a perfect use case for this all sky camera project. I built one over xmas out of boredom and the patriot astro video was pretty easy to follow.
https://patriotastro.com/live-all-sky-camera/
https://patriotastro.com/live-all-sky-camera/
You could do it with a DSLR, external power, and an intervalometer. Set it to take 20s (or whatever) exposures every 25s, and then just let it go all night. That’s how I first did astrophotography with my telescope, before I added a laptop, acquisition software, etc. etc. etc. etc…….
Cheers,
Scott
Cheers,
Scott
Helpful
Thanks, Scott. That was actually my initial plan–just to set up a DSLR with a dummy battery plugged into the mains and let it go all night. That actually might be the simplest option, the only downside is that the room with the best view looking south is potentially a guest room, and I'm not sure how many guests would love to have a DSLR on a tripod shooting away all night…. ;-)
Well Written Engaging
Yeah, I can see how that might be a little unsettling, but then I'm pretty anti-social so sounds like a win-win to me!….. : )
Cheers,
Scott
Cheers,
Scott
I tried it with a Zwo 482MC and with a 35mm lens it works. I tried first with a Sigma 14mm but it was too wide and I had some patterns on the image. It was connected to a Asiair pro. I did my tests too late for the aurora this week as I had to troubleshoot some focus issue, but I will be ready for the next one!