Clear sky alarm clock

[jambouk]

Is there a way to have an alarm clock to wake you up in the middle of the night if the sky has cleared?

James

[knobby]

Astropanel for android has something along those lines... Not sure how or if it would work? Worth a look

[knobby]

[jambouk]

Thanks for that. I meant a physical device which looked at the sky and some how linked to an alarm / mobile phone. Most weather predicting software seems pretty useless to me

James

[PorkyB]

I can think how it could be done.  An all-sky camera and some software to recognise and count stars.  When it can see enough stars over a wide proportion of the sky then set off the "clear sky alert" siren.

I sure someone could knock up a prototype and get onto Dragons Den.

[jambouk]

Cool. I thought something might already exist.

Feel free anyone to take the idea forwards, i won't claim any intellectual property rights

James

[knobby]

I emailed Them about a clothes peg bag that has a rain sensor attached that links to your doorbell :-) remarkable I thought but they weren't interested :-(

[LeeWilky]

I think my mrs would actually kill me if i found something that did this lol.  Good idea tho unles you had heavy clouds with a few gaps and it kept going off all night just as a break in the clouds passed.

[ardbeg74]

Well there is a way to measure the seeing conditions, its being used here.... would "just" have to have some software/hardware to activate your alarm clock when the seeing matches your preferences. 

http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/AO/

But the cost might be an issue, not to mention problems with the council and aviation authority

[m37]

This seems to come with some '...example software for reading values in Perl.'

Maybe you could do something to tie it in with email and send one to your phone.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/unihedron-sky-quality-meters/unihedron-sqm-lu-sky-quality-meter-usb.html

The manual seems pretty in-depth so might be worth a read.

[jambouk]

Cool, that set up would work. I'd still need it to somehow alarm; i'd sleep through an email.

James

[catman161]

Hey JD,

Peter shah uses a completely automated system with his Obsy that watches the sky/measures the air temp/air pressure/humidity and will automatically park the scope and close the Obsy roof so I am sure that this indeed possible. He may even comment on here, but if you look on one of his image threads on EMS he put some links to the setup that he uses to automate his setup, it's pretty cool.

[jambouk]

Ah cool. Just have to set it up correctly; currently at home when the postie presses my neighbours door bell, mine goes too too! Would gate the whole street to get a 3am clear sky wake up call

Jd

[catman161]

Ah cool. Just have to set it up correctly; currently at home when the postie presses my neighbours door bell, mine goes too too! Would gate the whole street to get a 3am clear sky wake up call

Jd

ha haha!

[JamesF]

The major problem, I would suggest, is waking yourself up without incurring the ire of anyone else in the house for disturbing their sleep.  I'm aware that there are "silent" alarms, but I'm not convinced of their reliability.  Particularly in my case.  In the ten years or so we've had children I've become able to sleep through almost anything.

James

[AlexB67]

The major problem, I would suggest, is waking yourself up without incurring the ire of anyone else in the house for disturbing their sleep.  I'm aware that there are "silent" alarms, but I'm not convinced of their reliability.  Particularly in my case.  In the ten years or so we've had children I've become able to sleep through almost anything.

James

You could make something to avoid that, Just plug your small Walkman type earphones in, pump up the volume, I doubt you will sleep through that. Alternatively, a rumble pack of sorts you attach to parts of the body, I'll not go any further where you may want to attach it, suffice it to say, if well placed it will wake you up. Job done

[Crebles]

all that fuss just to alert you three times a year.....