An Allsky camera, as the name suggests, is a specialized camera designed to capture the entire sky in a single image. It is used for both meteorological and astronomical purposes. These cameras are capable of much more than single-photo applications. They can be used for imaging meteor showers, tracking satellite, lunar, and planetary movements. In addition to their practical applications, Allsky cameras also enable a number of creative pursuits. They are compatible with software that allows you to capture extended series of exposures, compiling them to create stunning movies of the night sky. Whether you’re an amateur astronomer or a professional meteorologist, an Allsky camera can be a valuable tool for observing and documenting the sky above.
To install and set up an Allsky camera based on the Raspberry Pi and PiHQ camera, you will need the following components:
- Raspberry Pi 3B+: This is the main component that will control the camera and process the images.
- Raspberry Pi HQ Camera: This high-quality camera is capable of capturing detailed images of the sky.
- Cmount Wide angle lens .
- Clear plastic dome : This dome protects the camera while allowing it to capture clear images.
- Silicone calk for sealing: This is used to seal the enclosure and protect the components from weather conditions.
- Enclosure : This enclosure houses all the components and protects them from weather conditions.
Once you have all these components, you can follow these steps:
- Set up your Raspberry Pi with Raspbian and enable the camera1.
- Attach the camera to your Raspberry Pi23.
- Download and install the adjusted AllSky software by running these commands in your terminal4:
cd ~ sudo apt-get install git make git clone --recursive https://github.com/RobboRob/allsky.git cd allsky sudo ./install.sh
Remember, this is a general guide, and you may need to adjust these steps based on your specific setup or requirements.
The housing I’ve made is made up of some PVC pipe cut to size, which fit the Acrylic dome perfectly.
