DIY Allsky / meteor camera where to start limited Budget

[skippyinspace]

I was looking to add a camera to my weather station and google took me to lots of places but some of them from a time before pi! 

I suddenly came accross allsky and meteor cameras and went thats better I need to make one of those.

But my budget is ridiculously small and I have none of the equipment available, Less than £100 and preferably closer to £50 but can be updated as funds become available

What I believe I need is the following

A pi with wifi - is a zero w ok or do I need a 3

Software - Git hub I expect

Camera - pinoir, something lowlight that plugs into a usb port. the ZWO cameras are out of my price range for now

Anything else?

Does anyone one have any recent experience of this type of set up or similar for the price range as a lot of stuff im finding is over 4 years old and with some of the metor camera stuff Im finding requires a real pc.

Or am I being unrealistic

Thanks

Ian

 

[vernmid]

Hi

I built one from this link

https://www.instructables.com/id/Wireless-All-Sky-Camera/

I used a Pi2 and a ASI120MC.

Works well ? but appreciate a ZWO may be too pricey for you.

Cheers

Vern

[Gina]

What lens and what camera will work for you depends on the field of view you require.

[skippyinspace]

The  indestructible link was one that Ive seen before that had got me thinking about doing this, Ive asked the same question  to a meteor tracking group who have given me a parts list for a diy meteor camera with links to converting it to an allsky camera.

Which I think if I mashed it up with the indestructible instructions might work.

Probably looking  for the widest field of view

Had a pi supplier suggesting the noir camera with a pi zero w and a mobile phone fisheye lense

thanks

Ian

[JamesF]

1 hour ago, skippyinspace said:

Had a pi supplier suggesting the noir camera with a pi zero w and a mobile phone fisheye lens

I suspect the Pi camera may not be sensitive enough for this at night.  A quick search didn't turn up any examples of images of the night sky (perhaps I didn't look hard enough), but I did find suggestions that it needs a lot of IR illumination to work as a "normal" night-time camera (like a security camera).  The photosites on the sensor are tiny and whilst it may be a little more sensitive than the sensors used in some of the ZWO cameras, for instance, they have photosites anything from fifteen to as much as thirty times greater area, so they'll capture a lot more light.

It'll be low-resolution, sure, but if you fancy trying the mobile phone fisheye lens, you could perhaps give it a go with your SPC880?  Or perhaps even just try that with the stock lens initially.  I can't recall whether I did that myself with mine.  Possibly not.

James

[JamesF]

Could also be worth looking out for a used QHY5 or QHY5-II (it might take a while).  I'd guess they're not desperately expensive these days.  Possibly even the QHY5L-II, though I expect that might be over budget.

James

[discardedastro]

I can absolutely confirm the Pi camera isn't suitable. I thought "hey, I could make one with a spare Pi and a NoIR lying around!", went and bought a wide angle lens for the camera, made an enclosure, etc etc.

Turns out the longest exposure the Pi will do is about 2 seconds. Even with the gain cranked to 11, it's useless. Absolutely go for a proper astro camera. I'd opt for resolution over sensitivity - I'd probably go for an ASI178MC or similar if I were aiming for a higher res than a 120MC, the QHY5 isn't a bad shout though. Haven't done one (successfully) myself yet, but will probably go for a 178MC attached to a Pi or similar - or get myself a better guide cam and recycle my 120MC into an all-sky cam. Really quite keen to try and train a deep neural network to do image analysis/segmentation so I can detect clouds, rain etc, more as a fun project than for obsy control.

 

Edit: Attached is the absolute best I could get out of the Pi camera, post-processed in PixInsight. The starbursts on the right are amp or sensor noise of some form; the weird shapes top left are a sundial (and the glow is local skyglow).

[Gina]

Unfortunately an all sky camera is really just another astro imaging rig, just that it covers the whole sky.  You don't need tracking as long as the exposure is less than a minute or two but you do need an extra costly lens to get that much coverage.  If your sky is limited by trees and/or buildings then the lens supplied with the cheaper ZWO astro cameras may suffice.  I have tried an ASC with webcams etc. but never found one sensitive enough.  I also tried a QHY5 but that was very noisy without cooling. 

I think you would be struggling to get the cost much below £200 overall, including a Raspberry Pi 3B and dome etc. but with that budget you can buy an ASI 120MC-S, RPi 3B and dome and at least cover something like 150 degrees of sky.  You might want to cool the ASI120MC-S in summer to reduce noise... and so the complications and cost go up!

Good luck.

[skippyinspace]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions, Im probably going to have a go at the meteor camera that I have had some info sent through on. IF I do go down this route Ill post as I go along