Observatory camera

[Bart]

Who is using an observatory camera to keep an eye on the scope etc. from a remote location. Is it switchable, does it have IR lights, is it IP ready, wired or wireless?

I live 60 km from my shared obs and wanted to travel a lot less. There will be someone there most of the time although checking the scope pier crash clearance would help.

I will investigate limits as well. Using an AZ-EQ6 with EQMod.

Cheers.

[darrellx (Darrell)]

Bart

I do have a remote camera, but it is not used for an observatory.

It is a Foscam F19900P Outdoor HD IP Camera. Bullet style security camera. $145

IR - yes. Night Vision range to 20m
IP - yes.
Wireless - yes
Wired - yes
1080P
Field of View is 98degrees

I only use it as a wireless device. I purchased a Telstra 4GX WiFi hotspot, dumped the Telstra SIM, and put in an ALDI prepaid. I live on the Gold Coast and this is sitting 129kms west of me (as the crow flies).

The camera is attached to a wall outside, along with a small solar panel. Inside, there is a 12 volt gelcel, small inverter, and the 4GX.

I don't stream video, though I could. I mainly use it to take stills and have a look at the weather and see what animals are walking around - plenty of wallabies, bandicoots, birds. And saw a large python once.

I think (from memory) there is some sort of "push" functionality if you use the motion detection. But with all the animals I figured that would kill my prepaid balance.

Hope this helps.

Darrell

[Paul Haese]

Hi Gray,

I use an IR camera at both of my obs. I bought it from Jaycar. They have an upgraded version now. Essentially I turn if off and on via a separate IP switch. It has its own web address and browser page and you need to port forward this on the router it is going through. It is both wireless and wired via Ethernet cable. Ethernet is my preference as it allows me to stream and see what is going on without latency. Don't leave it on for too long as it will chew up your allowance. I left mine on for a few of hours with the webpage open one night and it used up 10gig of my allowance. Also it will interfere with your light frames, the IR on that occasion affected my LRGB because the secondary mirror on the Newtonian was pointed toward the IR camera. So if the objective is seen by the camera it can create weird gradients if left on during a session. I now turn it off during a session and then use it to check to see if the roof is closed and the scope is parked at the end of a session.

Also you will to consider a static IP through the service provider for access to the observatory and camera.

[Bart]

Thanks guys, great info and good tips on the data!

[baileys2611 (Simon Bailey)]

I use a raspberry pi and pinoir camera, take a picture every hour and post it to a web page, but it could easily be adapted to use Motion and provide real time alerts (http://www.skyslab.info/skyslab-cam). Cost all up was $100 (not including my time to code and develop).

[Bart]

Thank you Simon, interesting site.