Welcome to Starlight Cascade Gardens & Observatory AllSky2 Camera Page!
Near Yarker, Ontario, Canada. (44.22.39 N 76.45.47 W    151M Elevation)

AllSky2 Camera System


This system was installed and operational on 2012 June 08.
This camera is from the University of Western Ontario Meteor Physics Group and was running with at least 4 cameras since 2004 December.
Today there are 20 active cameras in the system from Collingwood in the north to Kincardine in the west, to the UWO campus in London in the South and now here in Yarker to the east. (Updated: Now the easternmost camera is located at the Canadian Space Agency Headquarters outside of Montreal.)

Latest Image from UWO Allsky camera #10 web:

Last Night's event summary:
Last Night's events are updated Daily at 08:30.
The camera is a low light video camera (image left) with 640x480 resolution. It outputs a composite video signal which travels through 50' of highgrade coax cable to the computers videocapture card, which digitizes the analog signal.
It is mounted on the end of our garage roof (image center)with a fairly clear view to the west (image right)
Event Log
  • 2022April20 - still running strong. revamped autogeneration of special events folder web page
  • 2021Nov04 - Ninth anniversary.. approaching 9.5 actually!
  • 2020Nov02 - The system has now been running for over eight years.
  • 2019July11 - Computer dropped off local network, replaced cabled and switches, now online again, down for maybe 1 day.
  • 2018Jan20 - System unavailable during computer maintenance
  • 2017 Nov 21 - should be back up and connected again.. will see results later this morning.
  • 2017 Nov 18 - network connectivity problems means we cannot process the daily imagery. Working on this ...
  • 2017 Oct 11 - one of two RAID drives died, replacement for bad one soon.
  • 2017 August 29 - new +-12vdc power supply installed, now powering the 12vdc circulation fan and the 24vdc heater. No more condensation!
  • 2017 July 04 - working mostly continuously since June 23rd in the same orientation, without heaters or circulation fans.. need +-12vdc power supply, which will probably not be until mid August.
  • 2017 June 22 - cleaned inside and outside of dome with isopropyl alcohol, rotated housing 90 deg.. the wrong way! Trying to get north back to the top again. Will fix tomorrow.
  • 2017 June 21 - new camera up and running... was the intermittently bad power supply all along!
  • 2017 June 16 - new replacement allsky camera installed. This is the 3rd in 5 years.
  • 2017May16 - replaced allsky lowlight camera with surveillance camera as troubleshooting step. computer and frame grabber worked! must be dead camera itself. replacement shipping in next week or two.
  • 2017 April 18 - system appears to have suffered a camera hardware failure since last night session. Troubleshooting in progress...
  • 2017 April 05 - We have been changing the start and stop time as daylight increases and darkness decreases. Today we also switch from 80sec exposures to 60sec exposures to get an easier to analyze time sense. Will evaluate after a week or so of dimmer images from shorter exposures.
  • 2017 January 28 - condensation continues, now only at lower elevations in the dome, not at the top. The next plan is to remove the dome from the housing and reseal it to the housing.
  • 2017 January 14 - condensation continuing. remove dessicant packs, wipe down dome.
  • 2017 January 02 replaced flat gasket with round gasket in the hopes of stopping the condensation. heater working, fan working, cleaned off condensation
  • 2016 December 04 - opened up housing to clean off condensation
  • 2016 October 09 - opened up housing to clean off condensation
  • 2016 March 20th - opened up housing to clean off condensation
  • 2015 July 02 - condensation inside dome, opened, dried, removed 2 small bags of dessicant and added 2 large bags of new dessicant. made sure base gasket was closed and tight fitting.
  • 2015 June 17 - condensation inside dome, opened, dried
  • 2015 April 07 - condensation inside dome, opened, dried
  • 2014 November 07 - camera orientation set so long axis is east-west. Now we are waiting for a clear sky so some star calibration can take place. No events will be recorded until after that event.
  • 2014November04 - new replacement camera system #10-2and power supply installed. Still needs to be rotated to previous orientation
  • 2014August22 - power supply, fan and camera failures. system offline until further notice
  • 2014April07 - Nice overhead firefall at 07:20:36 UT (03:20:36 EDT)
  • 2014March21 - caught major St. Thomas Event on 20140319 at 02:24 UTC
  • 2013September04- cleaned dome.. some bad bird had left behind something.
  • 2013February13 - added code to create summary image of each night convert ev_*.png -evaluate-sequence max summary.png
  • 2013February11 - moving all notable events into /events/ folder for permanent URL linkage.
  • 2012Dec15 - replaced old camera with new camera in an attempt to get rid of condensation issue - new camera not functioning. Replace new camera with old camera and added 4" dryer vent inside to aim the airflow onto the dome better. No more Condensation!
  • 2012Dec13 - still more code fixing
  • 2012Dec12 - automated scripts should now be functional to save and display a weeks worth of data. will take another few days to fill out the week.
  • 2012Dec10 - still tweaking the code
  • 2012Dec09 - added daily (08:30) upload of all event images but not video (too large!)
  • 2012Oct20 - cleaned condensation again, installed really big dessicant package... HUGE!
  • 2012oct10- still condensation!
  • 2012oct09 - condensation again, dried inside, removed dessicant packages thinking they might be the problem.
  • 2012oct08 - condensation again, dried inside
  • 2012oct 06 - condensation again, dried inside, raised temp setting from 20 to 25 deg C
  • 2012sept28 - condensation back again. dried inside of some again. Added new large dessicant bag.
  • 2012sept24 - cleaned inside of dome of condensation and fog. 2nd time since system went operational. There are two small dessicant packages inside.. maybe not enough.
  • 2012august08- set up this web page
  • 2012june08 - system installed and operational camera 10-1

    AllskyCam reference info

  • http://lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.ca/ Latest worldwide meteor news
  • http://www.amsmeteors.org/fireball2/public.php American Meteor Society Fireball reports

    Resources

  • North American All-sky Camera Database
  • Meteorite and Impact Advisory Committee of the Canadian Space Agency * How to Report a FireBall
  • Meteor Detection Systems: The Saskatchewan Fireball Camera Network
  • University of Western Ontario Meteor Physics Group (UWO)
  • North York Astro Assoc (NYAA) Lorenz Observatory All Sky Camera [Oak Heights]
  • Cloudbait Observatory (Colorado USA) * Allsky camera
  • Moonglow (Missouri USA)
  • SBIG Cameras
  • IRF (Sweden)
  • Sodankyl (Finland) does not operate in northern hemisphere summer due to high latitude
  • Churchill auroracam

  • From: http://www.namnmeteors.org/calendar2013.html 
    Shower                    Activity      Maximum    Radiant     V     r     ZHR    IMO
                           Period         Date                km/s                Code
                                                  h  m   °
Antihelion Source       Dec 10-Sep 10    n/a       Various    30    3.0      4    ANT
Quadrantids             Dec 28-Jan 12   Jan 03    15 20 +49   41    2.1    120    QUA
alpha-Centaurids        Jan 28-Feb 21   Feb 08    14 00 -59   56    2.0      6    ACE
gamma-Normids           Feb 25-Mar 22   Mar 14    15 56 -50   56    2.4      6    GNO
Lyrids                  Apr 16-Apr 25   Apr 22    18 04 +34   49    2.1     18    LYR
pi-Puppids              Apr 15-Apr 28   Apr 23    07 20 -45   18    2.0    var.   PPU
eta-Aquarids            Apr 19-May 28   May 06    22 32 -01   66    2.4     55    ETA
eta-Lyrids              May 03-May 14   May 08    19 08 +44   43    3.0      3    ELY
June Bootids            Jun 22-Jul 02   Jun 27    14 56 +48   18    2.2    var.   JBO
Piscis Austrinids       Jul 15-Aug 10   Jul 28    22 44 -30   35    3.2      5    PAU
Southern delta-Aquarids Jul 12-Aug 23   Jul 30    22 40 -16   41    3.2     16    SDA
alpha-Capricornids      Jul 03-Aug 15   Jul 30    20 28 -10   23    2.5      5    CAP
Perseids                Jul 17-Aug 24   Aug 12    03 12 +58   59    2.2    100    PER
kappa-Cygnids           Aug 03-Aug 25   Aug 17    19 04 +59   25    3.0      3    KCG
Aurigids                Aug 28-Sep 05   Sep 01    06 04 +39   66    2.5      6    AUR
Sep. epsilon-Perseids   Sep 05-Sep 21   Sep 09    03 12 +40   64    3.0      5    SPE
Draconids               Oct 06-Oct 10   Oct 08    17 28 +54   20    2.6    var.   DRA
Southern Taurids        Sep 10-Nov 20   Oct 10    02 08 +09   27    2.3      5    STA
delta-Aurigids          Oct 10-Oct 18   Oct 11    05 36 +44   64    3.0      2    DAU
epsilon-Geminids        Oct 14-Oct 27   Oct 18    06 48 +27   70    3.0      3    EGE
Orionids                Oct 02-Nov 07   Oct 21    06 20 +16   66    2.5     20    ORI
Leo Minorids            Oct 19-Oct 27   Oct 24    10 48 +37   62    3.0      2    LMI
Northern Taurids        Oct 20-Dec 10   Nov 12    03 52 +22   29    2.3      5    NTA
Leonids                 Nov 06-Nov 30   Nov 17    10 08 +22   71    2.5     15    LEO
alpha-Monocerotids      Nov 15-Nov 25   Nov 21    07 48 +01   65    2.4    var.   AMO
Phoenicids              Nov 28-Dec 09   Dec 06    01 12 -53   18    2.8    var.   PHO
Puppid-Velids           Dec 01-Dec 15   Dec 07    08 12 -45   40    2.9     10    PUP
Monocerotids            Nov 27-Dec 17   Dec 09    06 40 +08   42    3.0      2    MON
sigma-Hydrids           Dec 03-Dec 15   Dec 12    08 28 +02   58    3.0      3    HYD
Geminids                Dec 04-Dec 17   Dec 14    07 28 +33   35    2.6    120    GEM
Comae Berenicids        Dec 12-Jan 23   Dec 16    11 40 +18   65    3.0      3    COM
December Leo Minorids   Dec 05-Feb 04   Dec 19    10 44 +30   64    3.0      5    DLM
Ursids                  Dec 17-Dec 26   Dec 22    14 28 +76   33    3.0     10    URS
    Radiant positions are listed in right ascension and declination coordinates. The column "V" is the velocity in kilometers per second. The letter "r" is the population index. "Code" is the abbreviation for the shower that observers should use when reporting meteor observations. Periodic showers are listed as "var" under the ZHR column. Some showers may have more than one maximum.
    Page Created: 2012 June 08