Category Archives: Observatory

Allsky camera update

The problem we’ve had with the all sky camera over time has always been excessive moisture, and I’ve long though this was due to having it mounted on the edge of the hot-tub roof, so we moved it.  After 3 days in the new spot, it does appear that the majority of our moisture problems are now solved. I have spent some time working on automating the software for this camera, and now the pieces are finally falling into place.  Exposure times are determined by light levels, so as the sun sets, exposures will start to increase to a maximum of 15 seconds.  Images are updated live on the all sky image page 24×7.  In the evening as sunset begins, we start saving the images till sunrise.  Movies are created from the saved images, and posted into the appropriate page, so once this had been running for a week, we will have the last week of all sky movies available in the videos page, itemized by day of week. This is a big step forward towards where we wanted to get with the all sky camera, after 3 years, it’s finally mounted in a suitable location and running 24×7.  

And so it begins

Today we started creating a new website focussed around the astronomy endeavors here, which are beginning with construction of the new observatory. When we moved up island, all of our astro gear ended up in storage for quite some time, it’s been 3 years since we moved onto this property, and a lot of work whipping it into shape, but it’s now ready for the observatory build on the back lot.  The platforms are in place, with domes expected to arrive in the very near future.  Conduits are in place for power and data to the observatory domes, so we are making progress.