I'll first show the original version I made that consisted of a Samsung scb2000 cctv camera mounted in a home made box with a 6" acrylic dome on top. The lens was a tv f:1.4 180 degrees fisheye.
The scb2000 cameras were good in their day. They were popular for skywatchers because of the very low lux. Stars could be easily seen but the recording suffered a slow frame rate.
I thought it would work well as an allsky camera because it meant objects passing over would leave a slow frame rate streak. And could be easily seen.
And I did in fact record a very slow object that seemed to enter the atmosphere and cruise across the night sky so slowly that the fading streak left behind disappeared while the object was still in view on the screen.
As you can see the quality is quite bad.
So began a mission to build something better since cameras and ccd chips had improved so much over the years.
Yay : o )
I'll first show the original version I made that consisted of a Samsung scb2000 cctv camera mounted in a home made box with a 6" acrylic dome on top. The lens was a tv f:1.4 180 degrees fisheye.
The scb2000 cameras were good in their day. They were popular for skywatchers because of the very low lux. Stars could be easily seen but the recording suffered a slow frame rate.
I thought it would work well as an allsky camera because it meant objects passing over would leave a slow frame rate streak. And could be easily seen.
And I did in fact record a very slow object that seemed to enter the atmosphere and cruise across the night sky so slowly that the fading streak left behind disappeared while the object was still in view on the screen.
As you can see the quality is quite bad.
So began a mission to build something better since cameras and ccd chips had improved so much over the years.
This video shows how I made a flag pole type pull up hoist for the allsky camera module.
I kind of live in a gully and I have to hoist the camera up high to get over the houses etc.
I'm still to do a video which will show how and which materials to use as a housing and the specs on the camera etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjoiJtUiH2M
Sorry for the long pause between.
I got Chris (horsefarmer1000 yt channel) in New Zealand to build mine because he could do a much better job than me :)
The following pics are of the housing, camera, lens, dew heater and cables. A Sony alpha 5100 is ideal to use.
The abs housing had a 40mm quick release camera mount bolted and glued to it to hold the camera steady.
There is also a dew heater that runs on a separate 12v power supply.
The camera has a constant power supply to it also. Normally sony cameras only have a 1hr battery. But I can run this until the flash mem card is full.
I run the dew heater through a dew heater controller but find it's always on "full" or number 10 anyhow.
So by taking exposure shots and compiling into a timelapse video you can achieve much better quality. Here is an example video :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R80YpyWm-m8
Also if you have any questions regarding the build, just ask and I'll answer when I can.
Cheers :O) BP.