Suggestion: Allsky camera support

The one thing about allsky camera’s is it’s software…

I think it would be really awesome if SGP will include allsky camera support!!!
Going remote, even in your own backyard, will trigger lots of “us” to build or buy an allsky camera, just to see what’s going on and/or implement the picture on websites. Like me. :slight_smile:
But software to run it is very limited( & some to brand) to none. At the moment I use Maxpilote, but I’m running into it’s limitations. There’s just not enough camera setting support. As I understand, it’s developer is not capable (or is running out of spare time) of fine tuning the app.

Since all the knowledge is on board here: please consider this. It would be helpfull for many of us.

Wishlist for this app:
-ascom camera support
-auto gain/exposure and/or manual settings support
-use of darkframes
-NESW and/or text overlay
-ftp feature
-auto debayer files and store

Cheers,
Marco

I would love this…it could even be a payed extra.

Most allsky cameras lack any kind of ASCOM drivers. Also, controlling an allsky camera and uploading images over FTP is really out of the scope of SGP. I would really prefer a separate system for allsky cameras instead of introducing unnecessary complexity (and bugs) into SGP.

I disagree on that, lets see what the makers opinion is about it. But I do understand your concerns.
An allsky camera is easy to make. Most commercial camera’s have their own software, none supporting other camera’s.
Some normal guide/planetary camera’s even come together with a wideangle lens too. With some PVC and a dome you got your own permanent allsky camera. made mine with an ASI 178.
Good software is the issue.
A plugin might be the solution. All the knowledge is in tha house!
Like Kenneth: I would pay for it…

+1 for this.

I use the Orion Star Shoot All in One with the “All Sky” lens attachment for this. It does have an Ascom driver but the software is pretty horrible that comes with it. You have to open “AstroCap” start a Live View server then open HandyAVI lite to actually capture the video for detection. Then most often they are false alerts and airplanes.

I would like to see a secondary module for this as SGpro is meant to be a workhorse program and capture long sequences. I love the idea of ditching the original Orion software for something that offers better management of it.

I used a Starshoot Autoguider before. It’s the first version of the autoguider with very limited (ASCOM) driver features. So I switched to the ZWO, which just happen to cross my path at the time.
Most commercial allsky camera’s (SBIG, Starlight Xpress) are based on known camera’s with dedicated drivers allready supported by SGP. So I don’t think camera support is an issue here, but I had to put it on the wish list.

Taking a picture with the camera isn’t difficult, but allsky camera’s are made to operate standalone. As mentioned: a plugin f.i. would be a great solution and a real plus for SGP.

You can do this today with SGP if the camera has an ASCOM driver. I have a SX superstar, fitted with a wide angle CCTV lens. I just turn off guiding and mount etc and just let SGP acquire frames during meteor showers.
If you want to do something to control SGP (cloud cover) another possibility is to use Tektite skies - that has an ASCOM safety monitor output feature - which SGP can use for its sequence termination.

Interresting app!
I do have a cloudsensor, but I can imagine people are looking for this. Thanks for the link!

About using an instant of SGP: I haven’t thought about that, but thing is that this should run on it’s own. SGP is limited to 999 frames. So just over 8 hours at 30 sec. exposure time. You could add events for each day of the week and flush each week (in case you want to search for meteors f.i.).
So batch fit/debayer conversion, picture overlay, autoexposure and ftp. is what we still need.

The camera in my Oculus all-sky camera is the same as my guider (a SX superstar). Both work with the Oculus software. The software developer kindly produced a version that did not update the file count and over-wrote a file. That is perfect for use as a safety monitor.

Sorry to be posting this on the SGP forum but I thought that some might find it useful. If it contravenes forum rules please let me know and I will remove the post.

Last year I developed an ‘all sky’ imaging application to run my Starlight Xpress Oculus camera (this is non commercial and freely available for anyone interested). I have recently added ‘experimental’ ASCOM support for it but don’t have any other cameras to really test in on. If anyone is still looking for this kind of software and would be happy to carry out some testing (with an SX or ASCOM camera) please let me know (maybe a private message). A few details:

  • The software is really designed for traditional astronomical cameras using longer exposure lengths i.e. not video astronomy and am not sure how well it will work with faster CMOS cameras
  • The software is mono only, no colour images can be processed (although it might be possible to use a colour camera to produce mono images - something I would like to test)
  • Oh and sorry but it will only work on Windows computers from Vista onwards (no XP)

Mike

@Mike

Thanks for posting. That sounds pretty awesome. Thx!

Hello,

The software now also has ‘experimental’ support for colour cameras as well (took a while to get my head round the whole de-bayering carry on :slight_smile: ). If you are interested to test just send me a PM or have a look at the following group:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/allskeye-ascom/info

Kind Regards,

Mike

I’ve been using this for quite a while now and it is really awesome software!
I upgraded to a ZWO ASI 178mc colour camera with a Fujinon HF1.8HB-L1 lens and it really works like a charm!
Just have a look at the cam on http://www.astropage.nl/allsky/ to see it’s picture.
The colour balance could be better but that’s still a work in progress.

@marcoverstraaten - those are some nice all-sky shots on your web page. Do you house the all-sky camera in a weather housing? If so, what do you use for that?

Also, how dark are the skies where you take those images?

DaveNL