Allsky Camera Lives!

It took me longer to get back to my Allsky camera build than I care to admit but it’s alive and kicking!

I started with a ZWO ASI120-MC stuck on a mini-tripod under my telescope in November 2023. At the time, my intent was to build a kit that I could permanently mount to my observatory through the winter months. As with most things of late, life ensued and this plan landed in a box with a handful of other projects in my workroom.

Finally, over this miserably hot and humid summer, I pulled this one from the ruble pile of misfit projects and brought it to life.

This is running on a Raspberry Pi 4b using a ZWO ASI678-MC camera with a 1.55mm f/2 lens. The dome and project box housing the hardware were bought from Amazon.

For capture software, I did start out using Allsky by Thomas Jacquin. After a few weeks of tinkering, I found it was missing a few items I wanted that were not yet supported. So, I switched to Indi-Allsky by Aaron Morris. Over the course of a few weekends, I dialed in the settings and UI elements. The automatic YouTube upload of timelapse videos was by far the most difficult piece to get working. The setup process isn’t very straightforward and the instructions make some assumptions in critical areas. What really threw me off though was that finding my installation was missing two Python modules critical for OAuth and Google API to function. Once I figure this out, it worked like a charm!

I’m not quite done with the build yet. For starters, it is still mounted on an old tripod on my back deck powered with an extension cord. I’ve installed a POE hat in the Raspberry Pi to power the unit over ethernet. Since I already have ethernet ran to my observatory, I’ll be able to use the POE hat when I figure out final mounting.

I also need to figure out a solution for a dew heater. The humidity this summer caused several night of lost data due to condensation on the outside of the dome. Right now, I have an old dew strap meant for a finder scope cut apart, wired to a USB-A connector and shoved in the dome. This is working great but it’s visible in the FOV of the lens.

Taking time to play

Too often we become so immersed in creating “serious” art or portfolio quality images that we lose the joy and the sense of fun that made us pick up a camera to begin with. It is important to take time for personal projects or to just have fun with your camera to ground yourself and remember why you love photography.

I started dabbling with intentional camera movement (ICM) photography off/on a few years ago as a way to blow off some creative steam and just play with photos. Most of the ICM images I make end up in the trash bin having never seeing the light of day. This isn’t because they don’t meet some self-imposed standard but because they were simply playthings taking meant to just have a bit of fun with. But, every once in a while, I’ll look at some of these images and think, “That’s not too shabby for just been messing around!”.