Sandaysoft

Thanks That looks an interesting site - I'll investigate.I'll check them out too

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Gina

Sorry, no banner - weather station out of action. Hoping to be up and running with a new home-made one soon.

The orginal mods were done by Steve Chambers
http://www.pmdo.com/wintro.htm

You can also modify the in-camera firmware for better results using long exposures
http://www.astrosurf.com/astrobond/ebrawe.htm

The lenses at Edmunds, you should be able to get them cheaper on the 'net though
http://www.edmundoptics.com/onlinecatal ... uctID=2196

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Mark
Wilmslow Astro Weather

Thanks for the links 1.68 mm FL lens and a 0.003-lux B/W camera with 1/3 inch CCD sensor would give 90 degrees coverage by my calculation though not sure the usual calculation applies at very short focal lengths. If you get 140 degrees with 1.9 mm, it looks like my calcs are wrong Price is getting a bit on the high side. OTOH the camera in question can be modified for long exposures as seen in one of the links.

I'll be giving this some thought - I'd really love to be able to record images of the night sky. I've spent hours at times watching the sky for comets or meteor showers without much luck.

I guess it would need a shutter to avoid sun damage in the daytime.

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Gina

Sorry, no banner - weather station out of action. Hoping to be up and running with a new home-made one soon.

David, do you have Rob McNaught's email address? let me know if not. He may well have a spare camera for sale, as he operates a network of meteor cameras full time, and would certainly be able to advise you of the best options.

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Loomberah Weather: http://gunagulla.com

Yes, Gordon I do. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll email him and see what he has. Though I might delay that for a little while until I finish writing the paper I'm supposed to be writing for Astronomical Journal! I'm having much more fun with Cumulus and the weather station, but my thesis supervisor is breathing down my neck

DN

Lenses: also worth a look, and usually very good prices: http://www.surplusshed.com I have found them quick and very reliable.

DN

The 1.9mm on this page comes out at 132 deg diagonal on a 1/3" format camera according to them.

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Mark
Wilmslow Astro Weather

Thanks Mark

I'm seriously thinking in investing in a high sensitivity camera like the 0.003 lux one. I think that in itself would show quite a lot. My MS Lifecam picks up distant street lights a good mile or so away and I think if it were pointed up at the sky more it might pick up the brightest stars/planets. Here is an image from my current "weathercam" with brightness, contrast and gamma correction to bring the background noise up to the threshold of visibility. This is a single frame captured with Yawcam, uploaded to my web site by my P4 XP machine and downloaded with my AMD 64 with Firefox in Linux. (Should add - it has a polarising filter, so that cuts the light by half)

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Gina

Sorry, no banner - weather station out of action. Hoping to be up and running with a new home-made one soon.

Gina, what model Lifecam are you using?

DN

Microsoft H5D-00003 Lifecam Cinema Webcam to give it's full title.

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Gina

Sorry, no banner - weather station out of action. Hoping to be up and running with a new home-made one soon.

I've just checked the CCTV cameras we use for security and checking the livestock. The wide angle lenses are 2.1mm focal length, used with "board cameras" - 1/4" CMOS image sensor. This gives something like 90 degrees coverage in practice. Both cameras and lenses were bought from Maplin but they don't do them any more. Pity I didn't buy more wide angle lenses when they were available really - cheaper than I've found elsewhere (but I tend not to buy more than needed).

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Gina

Sorry, no banner - weather station out of action. Hoping to be up and running with a new home-made one soon.

you can also let the (web)cam piggybak on a small telescope with goto-system.
eg the MEADE etx-70 isn't very expensive second hand.
so it would follow the earth rotation and allows longer exposures,without turning the stars into lines.
mods and info: http://www.weasner.com/etx/menu.html
done this a few years ago with a Philips pcvc840k (ToUcam proII)

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http://home.xmsnet.nl/hanmir/
http://home.xmsnet.nl/hanmir/radarbox.htm

You may find this Danish website of interest http://stjerneskud.info/fireball/webcam.html . The board camera used can be purchased from RF Concepts in Ireland . His initial lens was sourced from Edmund Optics but I believe he has now moved on to a Sunex unit . A web search will pull that one up. The lenses he is using are , I believe threaded M12 ( the fairly standard webcam lens thread http://www.optics-online.com/dsl_fisheye.asp . Hope this is a help

Thanks. Very interesting indeed.

DN

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This camera looks interesting :- http://www.dinodirect.com/1-3-SONY-B-W-CCD-0-001Lux-F1-2-600TVL-Wired-Dome-Color-Camera-KIFERMD-26A-currency-GBP.html 1/3" Sony Super HAD 0.001 lux CCD sensor. Seems to come with an F1.2 3.6mm FL lens C/CS mount - could be swapped for a fish-eye lens. They have a half price offer on ATM - just 2 days left.

They seem a bit confused about B/W or "color" - a colour camera with a B/W image sensor

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Gina

Sorry, no banner - weather station out of action. Hoping to be up and running with a new home-made one soon.