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All Sky Cameras are ready to go.


Graham

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After designing a weather proof housing for my 4 CCTV cameras I set to work building it.

 

Yesterday at work I cut the parts I needed on the water jet.

I folded the camera mounting bracket into shape on the Break press. This allows the cameras to stand off the base by 80 mm to give me room for the wires.

I rolled a strip of 3 mm steel, 800 mm x 140 mm into a circle for the housing's sides.

It was then a case of welding it all together.

I also cut and bent the parts needed for the chimney mounting bracket.

 

Today I welded a tube through a pre-cut hole into the base .

This is for fitting to the chimney mounting bracket and provides an entry point for the wires.

I also welded up the chimney mounting bracket.

 

After spraying it all up I fitted the cameras to the mounting bracket and then bolted the bracket into place in the housing.

 

Next task was to fit a dew heater to the large acrylic dome I had acquired from Amazon. 

This was a spare Dew band I had kicking around that was fixed into position using Velcro.

This runs from the same power source as the camera.

 

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Now came the fun part.

Fitting it to my back chimney.

 

First job was to mount the chimney bracket using 4 x 10 mm studs using chem fix.

 

Whilst that was setting I ran the wires up through the tube and into the housing.

Plugged all the cameras and the dew heater into their relevant sockets.

 

Then it was fit the dome to the housing.

A quick test to make sure all was working as it should be and I was ready to mount it.

 

Back up the ladder to tighten up the nuts on the chimney bracket.

Once all tight I fitted the camera housing to the chimney bracket with a couple of large exhaust clamps making sure camera 1 was pointing North..

 

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Once all the gear was tidied away I switched it on for my first look.

You will notice that camera 1 is black and white and the rest are colour.

I managed to blow up a bit of the circuitry when I was disabling the infra red lights.

Not to worry as all the cameras run in black and white at night time.

 

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Just waiting for my replacement box of tricks to arrive and I should be good to go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Graham
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Thanks Ron

Like I said just waiting on the replacement box of tricks so I can record everything.

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1 minute ago, philjay said:

A natty bit of kit there Graham. Bet it will get the neighbours talking

 

No more than usual Phil.

They are used to my strange going on's 😄

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All looking really good Graham - looking forward to seeing your results ...... Just need some clear skies!

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Thanks Al.

Clear skies mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I seem to have a vague recollection of them in the dim and distant past 😄 

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😁  Yeah, I had my camera out last night but it was mostly cloud rolling overhead.

 

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Well the new box of tricks has finally arrived.

All set up and seems to be running as it should.

As per normal with new kit it is now pouring with rain 😂

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The new box of tricks seems to be working well.

The motion detection is picking up every single bird that strays across the sky.

So you can imagine how many times it has been set off over the course of today. 😂

Still it bodes well for picking up the meteors.

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Hi Graham,

 

17 hours ago, Graham said:

The new box of tricks seems to be working well.

The motion detection is picking up every single bird that strays across the sky.

So you can imagine how many times it has been set off over the course of today. 😂

Still it bodes well for picking up the meteors.

I get similar problems with our CCTV system at work!

Does the software on your box of tricks have sensitivity settings.

I know I can switch motion detection off on our CCTV so it only works between certain times .... I'd guess you'll get fewer birds at night.

 

Looking forward to seeing the results but if your weather is anything like I've had the past few nights then we might have to wait a bit!

 

Al

 

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Yes it does Al.

Got the sensitivity set mid range at the moment.

I will set up the schedule so it only works in the dark times.

Just wanted to make sure this box worked.  😂

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On 09/01/2020 at 15:37, Graham said:

The new box of tricks seems to be working well.

The motion detection is picking up every single bird that strays across the sky.

So you can imagine how many times it has been set off over the course of today. 😂

Still it bodes well for picking up the meteors.

 

Graham,

Having seen a couple of things in my images that didn't look like either aircraft or meteors I loaded up some satellite tracking software and found that what I saw was SL-16 and Ariane rocket bodies.

I've not got sat pass and Iridium predictions saved for the next few days to see what I can pick up.

 

 

 

 

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Strangest thing I have picked up so far is what looked like a con trail but there was no plane to create it.

It lasted for over a minuet across 4 subs completely filling the diagonal of the second and third subs.

Weird 😮 

This was on the single camera in Allskye

Edited by Graham
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Now I know what I'm looking for I can make out stuff I was missing .....

efGqEXY.png

 

Not a meteor but better than the myriad of aircraft I get over our location!

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