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Pi Gazing is a project to build meteor cameras using Raspberry Pi
- peddling-brink 2y agoI was hoping this was a diy type of project. I’d love to contribute to something like this.
- peddling-brink 2y agoFound this from another comment: https://globalmeteornetwork.org/wiki/index.php?title=Build_%26_Install_%26_Setup_your_camera_-_The_complete_how-to https://globalmeteornetwork.org/wiki/index.php?title=Build_%... Looks like $500 US is about the price of entry if you want to buy a kit.
- jimbobthrowawy 2y agoIt's great to see these distributed data gathering projects actually be popular and succeed in their plan. There's one for tracking lightning strikes globally too: www.blitzortung.org
- redundantly 2y agoI wonder how long the sensors on those cameras can survive being pointed up at the sky like that. Surely the image quality would deteriorate over time as the sun destroys the sensor until it eventually stops working.
- abdullahkhalids 2y agoThe cameras are only used at night, since that's when meteors are visible.
- squarefoot 2y agoI'd be interested in how they protect the sensors during day. After briefly skimming the sources it doesn't seems to be present any code to activate/deactivate an external shutter or servo to rotate the camera away from sunlight. There is code to turn the camera on and off but it doesn't seem to do anything else beyond that.
- redundantly 2y agoFully powering off the camera will help, but I imagine with direct sunlight going through the lens and hitting the sensor the heat could still damage it, despite it not recording.
- dylan604 2y agoif you have a camera pointing up, then unless you live on the equator, the sun will not be directly overhead for the vast majority of people.
- caphector 2y agoI have a sky camera (use it for weather and sky observations; my airspace is a bit busy for easy meteor observations). So far my sensor seems to be fine despite an unblinking gaze upwards.
- timthorn 2y agoLooking at the GitHub, the code downloads aircraft movements to avoid false alerts.
- pjsg 2y agoUnclear what the relationship is with the Global Meteor Network (https://globalmeteornetwork.org/ https://globalmeteornetwork.org/) that has people build meteor cameras, often based on RPis, and then contribute the data so that meteor orbits can be determined. This site: https://tammojan.github.io/meteormap/ https://tammojan.github.io/meteormap/ shows the meteors detected over the last 24 hours. You can see that the UK is pretty well covered with cameras as are some parts of Europe. The US is rather sparser -- with only Arizona having good coverage. Building a camera is fairly easy and is under $200 -- most of the parts can be ordered on Aliexpress.
- darkhorn 2y agoHow I should read the metor lines? What end of the line is impact point? It is really an impact point or last point where the light was observered. How I can search for a metheor using this map?
- pjsg 2y agoThe meteors go in the direction from darker to white. So the white part of the trail is the lowest and last part of the trail. Nearly all meteors do not actually impact the ground -- they burn up in the atmosphere. However, sometimes you get the end point quite low in the atmosphere -- then you can try and predict roughly where it will fall.
- scrps 2y agoEven cheaper are esp32 boards. Seeed has tiny esp32c3 with camera included for $14 USD. Granted the camera module isn't the greatest but it may be good enough for sky tracking, there are also other camera modules. I feel like RPis are overkill unless the data is being processed in situ (even then the rpi may be overkill compute) beyond just packaging it up digestibly to be crunched elsewhere.
- dylan604 2y ago> I feel like RPis are overkill I feel this way about most uses of RPis, but if it makes it more accessible and easier to use without the limitations of esp32 type boards then at least people are playing with things. However, from TFA: "The Raspberry Pi computer analyses the video feed in real time to search for moving objects, "
- dr_kiszonka 2y agoOh, they even have UFOs! https://pigazing.dcford.org.uk/moving_obj.php?id=20220114_205525_8b685b04ee810d49 https://pigazing.dcford.org.uk/moving_obj.php?id=20220114_20... (BTW, nice overlays below the video player and a neat project overall.)
- tonetegeatinst 2y agoCould this be used to track sattelites of space debris? You might need to be imaging in a different wavelength....I'm unsure how this would be done.
- rtkwe 2y agoMost satellites and debris don't reflect that much light, plus there's already pretty extensive tracking of any object up there above a certain size by the USSF (formerly USAF) spacefence.
- Paddywack 2y agoI wonder if SpaceX could put cameras on the far side of the Starlink satellites to make a network gazing outwards. To help compensate for the frustration they are causing astronomers…
- dtgriscom 2y agoHmmm. Synthetic aperture astronomy using an Earth-sized sphere of 4300 satellites.
- dr_kiszonka 2y agoI like the idea, but they would probably put the cameras facing the Earth.
- robxorb 2y agoBoth, and it pays for itself?
- Ringz 2y agoGood idea! From Wikipedia: „As of early March 2024, it consists of over 6,000 mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO)[5] that communicate with designated ground transceivers. Nearly 12,000 satellites are planned to be deployed, with a possible later extension to 34,400.“ The whole thing could be considered a 360 degree camera. I have no idea how good the theoretically achievable resolution would be overall.
- is_true 2y agois there any place where they should register those cameras? Imagine if they already have cameras in all satellites and one day just announce they are launching a new Earth observation service. Knowing how much elon seems to likes playing with market he prob would short all other companies in the sector before making the announcement.
- captaincrowbar 2y agoI'm disappointed that they passed up the opportunity to call the project Stargazy Pi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargazy_pie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargazy_pie)
- rapjr9 2y agoLooked through the Github files and I don't see anything that describes the hardware. This web page shows a picture of the insides of the camera housing (click "Next" once to see the picture): https://pigazing.dcford.org.uk/howitworks.php https://pigazing.dcford.org.uk/howitworks.php The camera is a Watec 902H2 Ultimate, and the lense is one of these: https://github.com/dcf21/pi-gazing/blob/master/configuration_global/camera_properties/lenses.xml https://github.com/dcf21/pi-gazing/blob/master/configuration... Probably the "Siemens 1/2" F1.2 4-12mm Varifocal Auto Iris C Mount CCTV Lens" since the AutoIris port on the camera is connected to the lense in the picture. The video capture is an Easier CAP USB capture device, like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/355668644499 https://www.ebay.com/itm/355668644499 https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32832474454.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32832474454.html The Pi is a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B according to the text but the photo caption says it's a Pi Mk 3, maybe either will work. It has a Pi Hat adapter board on the top (POE plugs into it and it seems to have a relay that connects to the camera, maybe to control power to the camera). The camera outdoor housing is made by Genie, looks like a TPH-2000, no longer made, runs on 240V and has a heater: https://www.citysecuritysystems.co.uk/genie-tph-2000-230v https://www.citysecuritysystems.co.uk/genie-tph-2000-230v In the picture, maybe that's the heater board underneath the camera?