SKycam
The SkyCam recording above is a live 24-hour time-lapse of the sky above the Space Haven Observatory. It updates daily and, depending on conditions, you may witness a variety of events such as sunrise and sunset, lunar phases, star and planet movements, meteor showers, rainfall, and dew formation. On rainy or overcast days, activity may be limited, but there is always something fascinating happening in the sky.
Live Image
SkyCam Live Image
This live image displays the current sky above the Space Haven Observatory, updating approximately every 60 seconds (depending on exposure settings). It provides real-time context for our telescope observations, allowing us to correlate cloud cover, atmospheric conditions, and lighting changes with our ongoing astrophotography sessions. If you see an unrecognizable image, it can be caused by condensation, snow or other atmospheric conditions.
YESTERDAY’S Time-Laps
The 24-hour skycam time-lapse above shows conditions across day and night. We use it to compare with our telescope captures to confirm whether any irregularities in our astrophotographs were caused by clouds, light, or real celestial events. Daytime footage also documents solar observations and serves as a visual record of daily sky activity.
Current Star trails
Last Night’s Star Trails
Please note that on moonlit nights, the Star Trails image may appear fully illuminated with no visible stars. Additionally, extremely bright events can impact the image quality.
Star TRAILS
Example of a clear night’s Startrails image
A Star Trails image is created by stacking multiple photos taken throughout a single night to capture the movement of stars across the sky. This technique provides a clear visual representation of star paths, allowing us to quickly assess the clarity of the night and evaluate the astrophotography results from that session.
Keograms
Below is the actual Keogram from last night. Please note that it also includes daytime data. So dusk is in the middle of the Keogram.
Last Night’s Keogram
Explanation:
A Keogram—a single image that provides a concise summary of a night’s sky activity. It allows us to quickly assess the quality of our astrophotographs from that night. When we encounter quality issues or unexpected brightness in our frames, the Keogram helps us identify the source, enabling us to correct the problem or discard affected frames as needed.
A central vertical column, 1 pixel wide, is extracted from each image captured by the SkyCam and added to the keogram from left to right. Keograms display only the activity at the center of the image and do not show events occurring to the East or West.
SkyCam system design
The SkyCam system features specially designed components, centered around a ZWO ASI224MC camera housed in a protective enclosure mounted atop the Space Haven Observatory. Fitted with a 2.5mm all-sky lens, it provides a 170° panoramic view of the sky. The camera interfaces with a Raspberry Pi 4 computer situated inside the Observatory.
SkyCam system design (continued)
The system continuously records single frames of the sky 24 hours a day and every morning process those images to produce the full motion movie, Startrails and Keogram that you see above. The software that controls and runs the SkyCam system is from the excellent ALLSKY implementation that can be found on Github here.