All-sky camera - Forums

Topic starter

Nov 29, 2015

Hi, again. One more interesting thing.
If you made this type of camera, could tell about your experience and show example photos from your camera?
I'll be pleased if you can give any advice in choosing sensor for allsky camera.
Here what i try to select: high resolution (better if it higher, of course), good sensivity, lense for wide angle view, possibility for external supply and remoting.

mads0100

Dec 12, 2015

I use a All Sky Camera. However they're not being made any more. one option would be to buy his software (it's good) and use a ZWO ASI120MM with its fisheye lens. You'd need to rig up an enclosure but it's do-able.

Richard Francis

Dec 7, 2016

I use the Starlight Express Oculus. I like it a lot! I use it with a Mac, with the software SX IO, which is perfect for this application, and even better it accepts AppleScript, so I can command it to start imaging and stop from other applications. OK, that's a bit of a digression, sorry …

For me one of the best things about this all-sky camera is that, with the 30sec exposures I use, it's very sensitive. So, at my place, where it's pretty dark, you can't see thin high clouds with your eyes. But, with the all-sky, you can really see they're there, and when it gets better.

cheers,
Richard

Helpful

Xplode

Jan 27, 2017

I'm starting up a project to make an allskycam these days, It will be with ASI120MC-S With a Sunex 1.55mm lens connected to a Raspberry Pi 3.
The housing will be 3d printed and connection will be done wither with ethernet+power over ethernet or 12v+WIFI.
The dome i want to use can be ordered from Ebay and everything is easily available.

Michael Poelzl

Jan 30, 2017

I haven't build one myself but have been extensively using (and writing software for) the Starlight Xpress All-Sky camera. I would definitely recommend a 150 degree lens over a 180 degree one (unless you really need horizon to horizon coverage) and crop the image to fill the sensor as much as possible. The ASI120M I think is a good choice because you can do still images as well as higher frame rates. If you have any dew at all you will definitely need a dome heater as the perspex dome fogs up pretty quickly. As has been mentioned before software is another consideration depending on what you want to achieve e.g. just see the latest image or analyse images, create videos, archive etc.

Helpful Concise

Chris Heapy

Jan 30, 2017

I currently use a QHY5III178M camera, I've used a variety of others in the past but the hi-res mono 178 sensor is the best I've found for this job. The real difficulty is not camera choice but finding a suitable lens because most are of poor optical quality. I tried colour cameras too but you don't get the sensitivity or resolution that a mono camera offers. Either SharpCap or FireCapture will work well for data capture. Actually I run two all-sky camera - one runs 24/7 for general cloud watching and is protected by a dome + heater, the other (the 17

is only used during an imaging session for sky quality measurement and meteor recordings. The 178 camera does not use a dome (it gives better image quality that way) and the camera generates enough heat such that the lens stays clear of dew under all but the most extreme conditions.

You can see on this 178 recording developing Cirrus overcast which, although mostly invisible to the naked eye, is clearly picked up by the camera. https://youtu.be/vfC0OgXe_3s These are 8sec exposures saved as time-stamped PNG files, eventually converted to an AVI compressed using H.264 CODEC using VirtualDub (to save space). I archive the AVI files and delete the PNG files - unless the still frame shows something of particular interest.

Helpful Engaging