Allskypi Camera System Project

Mar08
by catz on March 8, 2020 at 11:31 and modified on March 8, 2020. at 17:35
Posted In: astronomy, tech


The allskypi camera system is pretty much operational, subject to a few additional tweaks in the upcoming days. This is the first report giving background details:

allskypiCameraproject20200308v2

Many thanks to the original project creator: https://www.instructables.com/id/Wireless-All-Sky-Camera/

Future upgrades includes: dark frame image processing out hot pixels, a wider angle lens for more sky coverage, more text annotations onto the images, and possibly some active cooling of the housing to reduce the camera sensor temperature.

pi@allsky1pi:~/allsky $ cat settings.json
{
“width”:”0″,
“height”:”0″,
“exposure”:”90000″,
“maxexposure”:”90000″,
“autoexposure”:”1″,
“gain”:”50″,
“maxgain”:”200″,
“autogain”:”0″,
“gamma”:”50″,
“brightness”:”50″,
“wbr”:”53″,
“wbb”:”90″,
“bin”:”1″,
“delay”:”1000″,
“daytimeDelay”: “60000”,
“type”:”1″,
“quality”:”95″,
“usb”:”30″,
“filename”:”image.jpg”,
“flip”:”0″,
“text”:”text”,
“textx”:”15″,
“texty”:”30″,
“fontname”:”0″,
“fontcolor”:”255 255 255″,
“smallfontcolor”:”0 0 255″,
“fonttype”:”0″,
“fontsize”:”0.7″,
“fontline”:”1″,
“outlinefont”:”0″,
“latitude”:”44.4N”,
“longitude”:”76.77W”,
“angle”:”-6″,
“time”:”1″,
“darkframe”:”0″,
“showDetails”:”1″
}

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Allskypi camera sensor temp review

Mar04
by catz on March 4, 2020 at 09:36 and modified on March 4, 2020. at 11:12
Posted In: astronomy, tech


Allskypi is an allsky camera system with a ZWO ASI 120MC camera and wide angle lens protruding out into a 4″ transparent dome, with the remainder of the camera and the raspberry pi beneath it in the housing.

The dome was condensing and frosting, so we added a heater inside the dome.

Now the sensor temperatures are higher than we would like, but the condensing and frost problems seem to be fixed.


The holes in the lid were drilled pre-dome-heater, hoping to have hot air from inside the housing rise up into the dome.

Now perhaps the holes are allowing hot air from the domeheater to infiltrate back into the housing and heat up the camera sensor.

I plotted the temperatures of the sensor, air and dew from our nearby weather station and got this below.

So looking at this graph, what more can be done to lower the camera sensor temperature (which causes more hot pixels in a 60 second exposure)?

Idea 1) plug the holes in the lid to stop airflow from dome to housing

Idea 2) add vent holes at the top of the housing, below the lid and dome, to allow hot housing air to escape.

Idea 3) build some kind of airconditioner.. ie a Peltier cooler, to cool air inside the housing.

Idea 4) add a spacer between the bottom of the camera and its mount for better air flow.
Come warmer air temps in the summer, the sensor temp will definitely get too high… already in the last two weeks it has hit 15C!

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Seedy Saturday 2020

Feb27
by catz on February 27, 2020 at 11:11 and modified on February 27, 2020. at 11:12
Posted In: gardening

From https://www.kingstonist.com/news/seedy-saturday-offers-local-green-thumbs-an-early-start-to-their-gardening/


Gardeners, from novice to expert, take note: The Kingston Area Seed System Initiative (KASSI) will be holding their annual Seedy Saturday on Saturday, Mar. 14, 2020.

“Seedy Saturday is a warm-spirited celebration of seeds, gardening and community,” says Dianne Dowling, Kingston Area Seed System Initiative board member. “By March, gardeners are really looking forward to the end of winter, and the start of the growing season, but it’s too early for outdoor gardening. So, they come to Seedy Saturday, and have a great time, browsing among the seed packages at the vendor displays and the seed swap table. I tell people to come to Seedy Saturday with a list, because otherwise, you’ll want to buy one of everything!”

“This year is the 13th annual Kingston Seedy Saturday,” Dowling continues. “A measure of how people have responded to Seedy Saturday is that we keep outgrowing our locations. It started out on Wolfe Island, then moved to the Wilson Room at the downtown branch of the Kingston Frontenac Public Library. Then we held it at Unitarian Place on Concession Street. We have been in the auditorium in LCVI for a few years now, which is a great place for our event. Lots of light and open space in the auditorium, room for our workshops and a lunch area, accessible by car, bus or on foot, and easy for the vendors and community groups to move their displays in and out. It seems to be just the right size to give the event a great community feel — lively and varied, but not crowded or overwhelming.”

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Old DSLR

Feb27
by catz on February 27, 2020 at 10:23 and modified on February 27, 2020. at 10:25
Posted In: tech

A review of our 1st Digital Single Lens Reflex camera:
Canon 300D (circa 2003) bought used for $100

Features:
USB 1.1 (very slow in transferring images off via USB cable to computer)
CF memory card (very slow saving files, low capacity)
1.8″ rear display is small and fixed
6MP APS-C sensor
No live view on display
Video: No
RAW format Yes
ISO 1600 max

We have used it for astrophotography using 18-55mm for widefield night photography and a75-300 zoom lens with a 58mm solar filter for daytime solar photography.
It is not the greatest but can do 30sec exposures on Manual. In Bulb mode and with the intervalometer, much longer exposures can be made.

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L&A Hort met this week

Feb20
by catz on February 20, 2020 at 15:32 and modified on February 20, 2020. at 16:21
Posted In: gardening

The Lennox and Addington Horticultural Society met this week, on Wednesday, 2020 February 19th at our new location of St. Patricks Church, 179 West St, Napanee. Ample free parking across the street, meeting room in the new addition.
23 members and guests were in attendance.
The invited guest speaker was Elaine Collins, President of the Gananoque Horticultural Society, who spoke on English Garden Experiences, a travelogue of 5 gardens.
The meeting adjourned at 8:45pm
Our website is:
https://gardenontario.org/view/society-layout/entry/638/

FYI their (Gananoque) dues are Membership -$20 SINGLE $25 FAMILY
Kingston Hort dues: $20/person; $25/family; Visitors $3.00
Collins Bay dues: $10/person; $15 family
Brockville dues: $10 single & $15 family
Belleville dues: $15 or $25 family
Bath dues: $10 single, $15 family
Bancroft dues: single – $15; family – $20
Ameliasburgh dues: $12 per person
Land’o’Lakes dues: $20 per person
Prince Edward County dues: $15 single, $25 Family
Rideau Lakes dues: $15
Stirling dues: Adult $15, Youth $2
Trenton dues: $15 per person
Tweed dues: $12 single and $16 family. Junior members: $1 per year (ages 8 to 17). Non-member fee per meeting is $3.
Lastly, our dues here in L&A: Fees are $10 single, $12 Family

histogram single membership: 4@$10, 2@$12, 6@$15, 3@$20
histogram family membership: 1@$12, 3@$15, 1@$16, 1@$20, 1@$24, 4@25, 3@$30, 1@$40
L&A have the lowest fees in the district.

One math challenge was brought up:
Tomato seeds are more expensive than gold. True or false?
The internet says there are 8-10k seeds/ounce. I find that hard to believe but will go with it until I get scale and measure some seeds myself.
Let’s work in metric.. because.
28g=1oz so 8k seeds in 28g = 285 seeds/g
Retail catalogue pricing of tomatos seeds tends to be 10 for $5 or $.50 each. We will go with our own SCGO heirloom tomato seed pricing of 20 seeds for $2 or $0.10 each

So Tomato seeds one gram 285 seeds @ $0.10 is $28.50/g
Todays price of gold is $52.15/g

So… tomato seeds are *NOT* as or more expensive than gold… BUT if you buy at retail prices of x5 over our benchmark then yes, they can be double the price of gold.

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Allsky1pi operational

Feb16
by catz on February 16, 2020 at 11:05 and modified on February 27, 2020. at 10:18
Posted In: astronomy, weather

The new allsky1 version3 camera system. The camera is a ZWO ASI 120MC (not cooled) with a 2.1mm lens giving approx a 150 degree field of view.
The housing was upgraded from 9″ to 12″ tall as the space inside was a little tight.
The 110VAC was removed and replaced with two power lines, a 5VDC for the raspberry pi and asi120mc camera, and a variable 6-12VDC for the 10 ohm 10 watt heating element in the dome.


Mounted on an angle to the north as the lens is not horizon to horizon.. and we want to bias it towards the north. Mainly for aurora…

**Updated 2020 Feb 17
Turns out that North is Up requires the camera in an orientation where the usb port is up. So it was the wrong way around the last night or two and was rotated 180deg today.
Looks like frost is still forming.. the variable power adapter is quite old and was a little bit flaky when measuring before the install.. perhaps it is not working at all?
Still getting hot pixels… will wait a few days and try the dark frame again as well.

**Updated 2020 Feb 19
Not a bad night… mostly cloud but some clear skies and stars. All night runs about 18 seconds… may see about dropping the frame rate to extend that a little more.
No condensation or frost overnight. Outdoor temp was about -3C at 5am, so not much of a test for frost. Tonight is forecast to be -14C.. a better test.

** Updated 2020 Feb 27
A new variable power supply ($20) was ordered received and installed on Feb 25th. It was initially set to 4.5vdc and the sensors temp soared to 20C overnight with +2C air temp. Feb 26th it was turned down to 3vdc, going from 2.03W to 0.9W. The sensor temp has now not risen above 10C in warm weather. Tonight air temp goes down to -8C

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Allsky1pi aka allskypi

Feb14
by catz on February 14, 2020 at 10:10 and modified on February 14, 2020. at 10:20
Posted In: astronomy

This is part of the new allsky1pi camera system, specifically the ZWO ASI 120mc camera with its included wideangle lens, and a reaspberry pi model 3b. The camera is mounted on a wood piece to hold it up into the dome the the top cap of the housing.
The system was redesigned over the last month, removing 110VAC and having only a 5vdc powr supply for the Raspberry Pi and a variable 3-12vdc power supply for the 10ohm 10 watt resistor in the dome, to prevent condensation and to melt snow).
It was reinstalled on the evening of Wednesday 2002 February 12th and worked once the power was plugged in.

Over the last two nights we need to:
1) rotate the camera so that north is up again
2) increased the voltage on the heater. The last two days were set at 6volts. wattage = volts^2/resistance so that would be 6^2/10=36/10=3.6watts
If we put it up a notch to 9volts we should get
9^2/10=81/10=8.1 watts, or a little more than double. That should melt the snow and ice!
In the summer it can be turned back down again as the absolute temp is much less.


THe new housing, 4″ PVC by 12″ long (the old one was only 9″ long). The old housing was a little tight for space, what with cables, a pi, a pi power source, more cables, camera, etc. Not to mention 5 cm of water! Note for future projects: duct tape does not keep out water infiltration!
The 10ohm resistor is mounted on the top cap. The large centre hole is for the camera, the smaller holes were for air circulation, hoping that the heat of the raspberry pi alone would keep the dome clear.. it was not.
A ring of silicon went around the edge of the top cap, with the dome flange sitting on it. Less gaps for air leakage than in the past. Two screws with fabric washers keep the dome on the top cap.
The power connector is an automotive 12vdc two wire set with protected contacts to avoid shorting.

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weather underground? – dont count on it

Feb09
by catz on February 9, 2020 at 10:03 and modified on February 9, 2020. at 10:07
Posted In: weather


The last couple of years, on what used to be the premier free weather data aggregating server, has gone to hell. Lost accounts, lost configurations, deleting features then adding them in again. Wow.
Today we noted that our station is “offline” and has been since midngiht 2020 January 28. Like heck it is offline. The weatherpi system has been up for 54 days now, reporting to the Weather Underground and PWS and generating its own weewx pages.
doing a quick search reveals no customer response to many many customer notes:

2020-02-03 08:41:20
@DHTheWeatherNut @Eweather13 @VermonsterWx @crankywxguy @TimNBCBoston @EdValleeWx @WesternMEwx Sweet, thx!! Any issues with data getting lost due to issues with Wunderground network data loss like Mike @WesternMEwx has experienced?
2020-02-02 23:09:19
@Armato1 @wunderground What’s up with my weather station being offline for days now ? Seems many others are having issues as well.
2020-02-02 01:29:17
@loparite @wunderground why are the personal weather stations showing as offline when they’re not? It’s been radio silence from you guys as to what’s going on!
2020-02-01 07:53:55
@The_Weatherman2 @wunderground @wunderground Looks like it’s working on the normal app but not on WunderStation
2020-01-31 19:28:28
@The_Weatherman2 Hey @wunderground, 20+ weather stations I follow on WunderStation haven’t been reporting recently, and they all stopped around 4 pm Wednesday. I know it’s not a weather station error because my personal station is working fine. Is there a server error? Anyone know what’s up??

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opposition 2020

Jan20
by catz on January 20, 2020 at 10:45 and modified on January 20, 2020. at 11:36
Posted In: astronomy


This image shows Mars at 7.2 arcseconds in diameter and a declination of +0deg 52 min and an altitude of 22 deg, and using 3ms exposures.
Following up on the 20 tips below, in particular Tip #3:

mark these on whatever method you use to remind you of upcoming events.

* 2020 opposition dates

July 14 – Jupiter
July 20 – Saturn
September 11 Neptune
October 13 – Mars
October 31 – Uranus

Of note Mars will be much higher in altitude for the 2020 opposition vs the last 2018 one:
2018 July 27 Dec -25°.4
2020 October 13 Dec +5°.5
The three oppositions after that are even higher in declination!

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advice from down under

Jan20
by catz on January 20, 2020 at 10:42
Posted In: astronomy

60cm Venor dobsonian telescope

We were wondering through youtube this morning and came across some nice videos of an Australian astronomer Dylan O’Donnell.

This one was particularly nice:

We use some of the software he mentions are are almost in complete agreement with his 20 tips.
In summary the 20 tips are:

1) Get a Big F(*&^@#$ Telescope

2) Use barlows/Powermates

3) Wait for Opposition

4) Get High

5) Seeing

6) Firecapture and Autoalign

7) Get Lucky

8) Region of Interest

9) Use a monochrome camera

10) Autorun RGB sequences

11) Good initial levels

12) collimation

13) Focus on a star

14) Drizzle with autostakkert!2

15) Lucky Lucky Imaging

16) Luminance

17) Auto colour balance

18) topaz denoise

19) sharpening

20) advanced: derotation

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L&A Hort Met This Week

Jan16
by catz on January 16, 2020 at 09:48
Posted In: gardening

The Lennox and Addington Horticultural Society met this week, on Wednesday, 2020 January 15th 7pm at the Morning Star Mission, 59 Water St., Napanee.
15 members and guests were in attendance. The meeting adjourned at 8:15pm

The next meeting will be on Wednesday 2020 February 19th, 7:00pm, at A NEW LOCATION: St. Patricks Church, 179 West St, Napanee. Ample free parking across the street, meeting room in the new addition.

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Betelgeuse

Jan12
by catz on January 12, 2020 at 12:47 and modified on January 15, 2020. at 11:02
Posted In: astronomy


This is the red supergiant star Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion.
The image on the left is from 2019 October 23 and the image on the right from 2019 December 28, 67 days apart.
Both are 15 second exposures but on different cameras, on the left a Canon Powershot ELPH 120 with ISO 800 and on the right a Canon 300D with ISO 1600.
Ideally one would want to use the same camera, the same object framing, same ISO and same exposures to compare, but even so, the difference in brightness stands out.
Betelgeuse has dimmed significantly in the last few months.
One can also go to the AAVSO website and generate a light curve, as I have done here below, showing brightness numbers from October 23 to Jan 12

Without numerical analysis, just looking at the curve shows a change from about magnitudes 0.5 to 1.5

You can go here to generate your own light curve to keep track of the star.

https://www.aavso.org/apps/webobs/results/?star=BETELGEUSE
or
https://www.aavso.org/LCGv2/

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