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Post by Mike on Apr 22, 2014 21:07:21 GMT -5
Anyone interested in All Sky Caming? I use a ZWO ASI120mm camera for planetary imaging. It comes with a fish eye lens. It has a 1/4 x 20 hole for a tripod mounting. So I mounted the camera on the top of a cheap tripod, wrapped the camera with Kendricks dew straps and ran a powered USB cable into my Lanai. I hooked a terabyte drive to my laptop for the "all night" video recording. I'm hoping to catch a meteor or two. If I get anything I post it here. Hey... it's something different. Mike
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Post by Viktor Z. on Apr 22, 2014 21:55:37 GMT -5
It is a very interesting all sky camera setup! Thank you for sharing.
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Post by Mike on Apr 23, 2014 9:04:48 GMT -5
Well I learned two things last night. 1st: make sure your computer doesn't have an update to perform and restart on it's own which shut down the camera after only 3 hours. Then you don't have to scratch your head in the morning trying to figure out why you only have video up to midnight. 2nd: Wrapping the camera with a Kendrick's dew strap works great. In the morning there was a heavy dew and fog but the camera and lens was bone dry. I'll try again tonight.
Mike
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Post by skybender on Apr 23, 2014 17:57:49 GMT -5
I have the application to join the nasa all sky fireball network , I just never got a chance to filling it out yet.
The skyball network uses -Watec 902H2 Ultimate- black & white video security cameras with RG-59 coaxial cables.
The tracking software is what makes their network important however. It automatically triangulates the position of each fireball.
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Post by astromanuk on Apr 24, 2014 2:12:57 GMT -5
I have thought about this a lot, but done nothing. I was thinking of getting the ZWO ASI120 as a planetary and solar camera. I will be interested to see how it works out for you Mike. I like the idea of having one of these running while I do my visual meteor watches to see what is going on behind me.
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Post by Mike on Apr 24, 2014 9:56:32 GMT -5
I had another run last night. At least it made it all night. I made some changes though. I downloaded a program called "Handy AVI" by Azcendant. Trying to search or review a 20 gig video after a whole night running is impossible so forget Firecapture ( which incidently is the best planetary capture software I've ever used). This software waits for an event and instantly records it. I works as I got a short (15mm long meteor streak) one last night. After 4:00 AM I got several satellites so the software works well. I also got several "false" takes which just says the sensitivity needs to be dialed back. The lens that comes with the ZWO works fine but I wanted a real fisheye lens. The ZWO lens is 150 degrees. Here in southern Florida I have a horizon to horizon view so I wanted a full 180 degree lens. I bid on a C mount lens last night on Ebay and got it for $60. As you can see by the image below, it's quite a step up from the stock ZWO lens included. The camera itself works great. I don't think for the money you can beat the ZWO ASI120MM or ASI120MC (which ever is your flavor - monochrome or color). It also creates a JPG of the event stitching together the frames containing the object. I have yet to play with it this morning but I'll post my results here soon. Getting up in the morning and checking the harddrive for a "streak" is fun.
I imaged the moon with my ISA120MM through an Istar 150-5 R35 last week and the images turned out great. So the camera is a great addition to the refractors. If you have an Istar refractor and a laptop, what's $300 to do some fun imaging? Especially if you choose the ISA120MC. Then no worries over filter wheels and filter etc. I use Powermates but of course a simple barlow will get you the right image size of a planet or close up of the moon. With no Powermate I could easily get the entire eclipsed moon in the field of the 150-5.
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Post by Mike on Apr 24, 2014 10:15:19 GMT -5
I know this is way off the subject of refractors but where else can I post? Banned from CN of course. I like this forum much better anyway. It has a minimum amount of drama. If this "All Sky Camming" continues to amuse me I intend to build my own permanent housing and mount it on my roof. I ordered two clear acrylic 80mm half spheres from a craft company for $.85 apiece. I found an idea online for a cheap housing. The professionally built All Sky camera I like is the Starlight Xpress model Oculus. It is however $1100. I think I can build one for half or less including the camera and lens using pieces from Home Depot etc. There are some cheaper ones from a company called Moonglow Technologies but they use video cameras with RCA type cable and requires a frame grabber and USB adapter to use on your computer. Their bundles are over $600. One important thing to remember is you must have a heat source. Without it the lens and or acrylic bowl will obviously dew over. I use Kendricks dew straps that were short and made for eyepieces on my now makeshift setup shown above. I intend to build some kind of heat source inside the housing to prevent the clear dish from dew similar to the dew strap concept. Note the resisters for a heat source
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Post by skybender on Apr 24, 2014 17:40:13 GMT -5
That pvc dome housing looks to be really cheap on ebay. on a side note, here are some fireball tracking softwares recommended by the nasa fireball network email reply I have.
Metrec (http://www.metrec.org/) and UFO Capture/UFO Analyzer (http://sonotaco.com/e_index.html
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Post by Mike on Apr 29, 2014 16:46:36 GMT -5
Here is my first one worth posting:
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Post by Mike on Apr 29, 2014 20:33:52 GMT -5
Well it turns out the lens I got for such a good deal wasn't so good after all. Good quality from Japan but wrong type of lens. Seller said a fisheye lens but far from it. Has a smaller field than the stock cheapo lens that came with the camera. So, I ordered another this time taking the advice of several other "experienced" All Sky Cammers. While I'm outside imaging or viewing through my scopes I have this camera running beside me. I usually review the avi the next day and it's exciting to see if you caught anything interesting. The only expense has been the camera and lens. I had this cheapo tripod to mount the camera on and already had lot's of Kendricks Dew straps. I use three different software applications and all three are free. Thanks for the suggestions Apollo but Metrec and UFO Capture are made for "video" cameras and require frame grabbers. It's old technology that NASA and a few other groups have been using for years. Modern All Sky cameras made by SBIG, Starlight Xpress and other cutting edge companies are using CCD cameras like me. Another cool thing about this is if I don't make it out with my scope, I'm imaging the sky as I sleep. Last night I set up my laptop on the Lanai, set my camera up in the yard and programmed the software to start imaging a time lapse video from 2:00 to 6:00 AM to catch the Milky Way coming up. I now have the steps down and know the software if anyone wants information let me know. Since Florida is the lightning capitol of North America imagine what I could get during one of our many many thunder storms throughout this summers rainy season. I should say that Apollo is right about NASA and New Mexico State University. Even though their cameras and technology is antiquated they are able to determine location, direction, height and origin. Of course their system is for scientific research and I'm just playing
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Post by borispider on Apr 30, 2014 9:06:41 GMT -5
Wow. Great stuff here, Mike. Hurricanes rollin' in would look great on that too(not that I want 1 to ). Maybe for a lesser priced solution you/someone could set-up a raspberry pi + the pi camera and get good results.
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Post by Mike on Apr 30, 2014 21:58:28 GMT -5
Hello Borispider, Could you give us some details on how you made this video? Equipment, exposure time and location please? I'm not familiar with that kind of camera.
Mike
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Post by borispider on May 1, 2014 9:58:36 GMT -5
Mike, sry should of mentioned that this was not my video. The link in the video description shows how he put it together and got it working. The comments below are worth reading too. You could get parts from Adafruit.com (out of NYC) or RS where the 1st link link's to (UK I believe). I mentioned this cause I thought it would be less $$, but maybe counters that with more labor. It is, however, open-source and very flexible since the Pi is a 1 board computer. A BeagleBoneBlack would work too, more advanced but more powerful.
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Post by Mike on May 1, 2014 16:17:29 GMT -5
Yes, that is a MAJOR do it yourself electronic project. I am using an off the shelf planetary camera from ZW optics. Plug the USB cable into your laptop and the other end into your camera and you're done. The only reason I posted the pic of the do yourself housing is to show how to build a cheap weather proof housing for a permanent mounting. The camera has a 1/4 x 20 hole on the bottom so you can stick it on top of a cheap tripod to image while your observing or leave out over night if it's not going to rain. The ZWO cameras are very sensitive and can be used on a dark sky with long exposures. Right out of the box.
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Post by Mike on May 2, 2014 8:59:18 GMT -5
Finally got a "real" fisheye lens from Rainbow. $75 from Ebay. Came yesterday but the skies were clouding up. Except for a manual iris, instead of an automatic one, this is the same lens used by NASA in their camera network that Apollo mentioned in an earlier post. Example below shows the outside wall of my kitchen and the outside wall of my living room. This lens if set to 1.4mm focal length is greater than 180 degrees. I cut the resolution down to 640 x 480 from 1280 x 960 to post here. I was dying to try it out so I took a short video (two hours increasing the frame rate by 15 times to a couple of minutes). The field is so wide I had to increase the focal length to about 2.0 mm to take out my neighbors porch light which is over 100 feet away and not very bright. But, this proves the huge field and the sensitivity of the camera. If you're wondering what is flying around the lens, it is the first mosquitoes of the year and they are hungry. Notice how distinct the big dipper is to the left of the image.
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