All sky camera

[Somnium]

i know there are cheaper ways to go about it but i am pretty happy with how this turned out. both the orion all sky and starlight express oculus are $1300 or more. i was happy to spend a bit of money so as to not make this a serious DIY project. but the combination of a ZWO 120 MC and a security camera dome makes for an extremely high quality alternative and it was 1/4 the price. SharpCap also does everything i need, live view, automatic exposure adjustments, timelapse, video etc.

the dome was purchased from jaycar and is metal with a solid dome. the only issue is i had to put some sealer between the dome and the metal surround in order to make it perfectly weather proof

[billdan]

Very well made Aidan, looks like it should keep the rain and the spiders from getting in.

Are you going to mount it on the roof of the Obs' pointing at zenith?

Or would it be better pointing towards the South / South West which is where most of the bad weather comes from.

I might do the same as you, I have a spare Phillips SPC900 webcam at home, may not be sensitive enough though.

Regards
Bill

[Somnium]

thanks, i think it will do the job :)

i have an aag cloudwatcher coming so i am going to mount it in the pole that will support that. it will be pointed to Zenith but the image is slightly rectangular so i get 150 degrees long ways but less from top to bottom. my observatory is next to a small mountain range (i hesitate to call it a mountain range) that dictates a lot of the weather, so i will make sure that is in the FOV