CCTV cameras as meteor detectors

[Andrew INT]

Recently, I have decided to control my telescope  indoors via remote access to a laptop over the WiFi. This has worked very well. I've also added a cheap CCTV camera to give me a bit of reassurance that nothing nasty happens to the telescope when it slews.

I have noticed that although far from a sensitive astro camera, the little £30 WiFi CCTV camera can detect the brighter stars, Jupiter etc. Since it has an IP address, has anyone here ever tried to use these for meteor detection - or even fireball detection? I know they would never be as good as an ASI or similar, but is this feasible?

[Spaced Out]

Yes, I'm doing it at the moment. See here...

 

[Spaced Out]

I am using Contacam software and so far so good but very early days, seems to work tho. You might want to also take a look at this... it got me started.

https://community.tp-link.com/en/smart-home/forum/topic/621130?sortDir=ASC&page=1

[Andrew INT]

15 minutes ago, Spaced Out said:

I am using Contacam software and so far so good but very early days, seems to work tho. You might want to also take a look at this... it got me started.

https://community.tp-link.com/en/smart-home/forum/topic/621130?sortDir=ASC&page=1

That's perfect, than you. I currently have a dome camera to monitor the telescope, but that can't point upwards without risking water ingress. I had been looking at the C310. Not heard of Contacam - will look it up. Is it free? Also, does it check the video in realtime?

[Spaced Out]

5 minutes ago, Andrew INT said:

That's perfect, than you. I currently have a dome camera to monitor the telescope, but that can't point upwards without risking water ingress. I had been looking at the C310. Not heard of Contacam - will look it up. Is it free? Also, does it check the video in realtime?

It's donationware, they expect £10 for it, but you can download and use it for free to try it then make a donation if you are happy it does what you need. I'm still testing it atm but I will be making a donation soon I think as I'm impressed with it so far. For example, it picks up small flying birds no problem in the daytime. I am just trying to work out how to schedule it to turn on and off each day so it only monitors at night, in the daytime it is a nightmare with lots of birds triggering it ! Motion triggers are in real time and it can send you notifications via email with either a short video or a gif thumbnail. A couple of thumbnails attached. I like the ability to highlight the trigger with a red box on thumbnail previews (so you can see where the movement is) and also you can mask off areas where you don't want detection, so I only have the sky active to avoid false triggers from swaying tree branches etc. You can also adjust trigger sensitivity.

[Spaced Out]

19 hours ago, Andrew INT said:

I had been looking at the C310.

I got the C325WB purely for it's low light performance. Hunted around for info on cameras and it seemed to be one of the best IP security cams for under £100 for low light stuff. Wanted to catch auroras with it, so good low light performance and wide angle were the main things.

[Andrew INT]

33 minutes ago, Spaced Out said:

I got the C325WB purely for it's low light performance. Hunted around for info on cameras and it seemed to be one of the best IP security cams for under £100 for low light stuff. Wanted to catch auroras with it, so good low light performance and wide angle were the main things.

Thanks - that's another one I can look into! It's currently £79.99 on amazon...

[Spaced Out]

This guy on YouTube uses a C325WB with the Contacam software for meteors.

 

 

[Spaced Out]

On 02/02/2024 at 17:01, Andrew INT said:

Thanks - that's another one I can look into! It's currently £79.99 on amazon...

Its not bad for the price, I actually got the Milky Way on mine the other day, incredible for a 20 frames per second security camera ! Here's a timelapse, you'll need to squint but you can just about see it ! 🧐

 

 

[JeremyS]

There are several networks that use low light video cameras to detect meteors, @Andrew INT. I belong to NEMETODE: http://www.nemetode.org

The advantage of contributing to a network is that by triangulation it is possible to triangulate the trajectory of the meteor and determine its orbit.