My AllSky Camera

[fozzybear]

Could you not retrofit a PC cooling fan at the bottom of the tube to either draw/force the air inside the tube as I see you are feeding a cable from the bottom of that mighty stack? looks great 👍

[CedricTheBrave]

8 minutes ago, fozzybear said:

Could you not retrofit a PC cooling fan at the bottom of the tube to either draw/force the air inside the tube as I see you are feeding a cable from the bottom of that mighty stack? looks great 👍

i have a plan, there is enough space to fit a cooling fan to the underneath of the camera with the peltier sandwiched in between. i will have to create some vents which i didnt really want to do but can cover with a small cowl

[CedricTheBrave]

dam you moon 

[fozzybear]

1 minute ago, CedricTheBrave said:

dam you moon 

You've got problems, Me no viewing nada for the past week rain/cloud rain/cloud  I have got to give it to you a great project and when one want's results one has to bite the bullet and wait ( No I want Data Now) Dam you Moon  great spectrum effect if you do spectral analysys. Sorry

[fozzybear]

Just a question, are you you still playing around with focus ?  why the flare on the right hand side ?  just a question as learning myself

[CedricTheBrave]

13 minutes ago, fozzybear said:

Just a question, are you you still playing around with focus ?  why the flare on the right hand side ?  just a question as learning myself

I will tweek the focus when I get time but I think the flare is from the moonlight catching the inside of the lens tube. Time will tell.

[DaveL59]

do you know if the lens edges are blackened? Not sure how simple it'd be to strip down and do that but it might improve things. I don't see that on mine which makes me wonder if there's a flaw at the lens edge? Does it have an IR filter glued on the back of it as that might be creating the flare effect?

[Gina]

I get lens flare too with a very bright light source like the moon or sun.

[CedricTheBrave]

3 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

do you know if the lens edges are blackened? Not sure how simple it'd be to strip down and do that but it might improve things. I don't see that on mine which makes me wonder if there's a flaw at the lens edge? Does it have an IR filter glued on the back of it as that might be creating the flare effect?

Dont know I just stuck it on and didnt think it would be an issue. But now I will have to address that. I believe it does have an ir filter. It will come down again to sort the cooling so will add it to the list.

[DaveL59]

could be that edge blacking the IR filter would quench the flare, depending how accessible it is of course. Nice image overall tho, very neat mounting idea too 🙂

I'm thinking the spectrum flare at the edge, lens flare across the image isn't easy to lose as it'll be from reflections off the lens surfaces and maybe the dome. Not like we can stick a lens hood on to try to control if when using a fisheye 😉

 

Edited November 11, 2019 by DaveL59

[Gina]

I don't bother about the flare outside the image area from bright lights - it doesn't matter and only occurs with things like the moon in night settings and sun for daytime.  The flare from the glass surfaces across the image are a nuisance but there's nothing you can do AFAIK.  Top quality lenses are coated to reduce this but the sun and moon are too much!

Edited November 11, 2019 by Gina

[CedricTheBrave]

not sure if anyone else has seen this but you can view quite a few allsky cameras on Thomas Jacquins website

very interesting to see the different setups around the world.

some amazing time lapses of the northern lights 

http://www.thomasjacquin.com/allsky-map/

[Gina]

I've found the stars tend to disappear if the moon is in the field of view but you can see any clouds.  Any moon in the FOV will ruin any view of the stars or Milky Way in the same way as with narrower fields except of NB imaging with Ha filter.

[CedricTheBrave]

this is a favourite

https://aurora247.no/index.html

[CedricTheBrave]

Ok so we are going for V3! 

Added cooling including a peltier!

Need to add some vents to the mounting tube so it sucks the air up the tube then out the side of the top.

Going to run it up first to see how cool it goes!

Hope I have it all the right way round 😁🙄

[Gina]

Sorry to say, I see one flaw in your design.  You are blowing warm air from the hot side of the Peltier TEC over the cold camera and aluminium plate.  This will reduce the efficiency of the cooling considerably.  Please take this as constructive criticism - I don't want to dampen your enthusiasm.

[CedricTheBrave]

34 minutes ago, Gina said:

Sorry to say, I see one flaw in your design.  You are blowing warm air from the hot side of the Peltier TEC over the cold camera and aluminium plate.  This will reduce the efficiency of the cooling considerably.  Please take this as constructive criticism - I don't want to dampen your enthusiasm.

No you are right it's not great is it.

 

[CedricTheBrave]

Another flaw in my plan is the use of metal screws to hold the heatsink onto it all!! Doh!

[Gina]

Oh dear...

[Gina]

You can buy Nylon screws.

[CedricTheBrave]

v3 is up and installed, temp of the camera sensor is around 27-30 degs which is a lot cooler that it was. RPI4 temp is 28degs so thats all cool

also changed the position as when it was high up i was getting too much stray light from local street lights

its about as good as i am going to get with my location.

last nights video was ok http://myallsky.co.uk/videos/allsky-20191222.mp4

[tooth_dr]

1 hour ago, CedricTheBrave said:

v3 is up and installed, temp of the camera sensor is around 27-30 degs which is a lot cooler that it was. RPI4 temp is 28degs so thats all cool

also changed the position as when it was high up i was getting too much stray light from local street lights

its about as good as i am going to get with my location.

last nights video was ok http://myallsky.co.uk/videos/allsky-20191222.mp4

Nice video looks very good. 

[Gina]

I would like to get my ASC up and working but needs a ladder and the ground is way too soft.

[deanok]

Great build... Am currently building one using the Altair Astro housing and wondered where you got the dew prevention ring from ? 

 

[CedricTheBrave]

11 minutes ago, deanok said:

Great build... Am currently building one using the Altair Astro housing and wondered where you got the dew prevention ring from ? 

 

from these guys https://www.dewcontrol.com/All_Sky_Cameras/cat3099126_4337324.aspx

i sprayed it with matt black paint as you could see its reflection in the dome

Edited December 23, 2019 by CedricTheBrave