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Roll Your Own All-Sky, Raspberry Pi Camera

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Re: Roll Your Own All-Sky, Raspberry Pi Camera

#31

Post by ShadowBanThis01 »

Roark66 wrote: post #26
ShadowBanThis01 wrote: post #3

Is there a MIPI camera that doesn't suck? I have every official Pi camera, and they are all just terrible. I would never use them for anything artistic, when it's easy to get far-superior results from even a cheap regular camera or used SLR. I'm just curious if there's a very-high-quality camera with a MIPI interface. Thinking it through... I only really care about video. Even if it's only HD resolution, something wi…

>Is there a MIPI camera that doesn't suck? No there isn't. Sorry. I've tried them all and their dynamic range sucks so bad.... Anyway, who thinks otherwise, I recommend you see the same non-ideally lit scene with for example a modern "analog" fpv camera like Foxeer Nano Toothless 2 (a starlight 0.1lux camera that maintains it's great dynamic range in full sun). The only mipi camera that has a shred of a chance to com…

Ha, thanks for the reply.

Tangent to your IP-camera comment: I replaced all my old SD, composite household security cameras with cheap-O TVI cameras, and I am impressed at how well this oddball HD format works over the same coax cables.

Re: Roll Your Own All-Sky, Raspberry Pi Camera

#32

Post by dheera »

I really wish RPi would come out with a truly HQ camera.

Their "HQ" camera is really a LOW quality camera with a shitty sensor that isn't even micro-four-thirds. The lens choices are abysmal. I want to see at LEAST APS-C or better yet full frame. Considering a full-blown mirrorless full frame camera costs $2400 it shouldn't cost more than $1000 for sensor only, and I'm 1000% willing to pay for a hackable, programmable full frame sensor especially for night sky photography that can accept the vast variety of full frame lenses already available.

There's the Sony QX1 which comes close to what I want but sadly they didn't continue that or produce them anymore.

Re: Roll Your Own All-Sky, Raspberry Pi Camera

#34

Post by interloxia »

gpt5 wrote: post #28

Anyone knows how did they make the beautiful diagrams?

The images are credited to James Provost, a technical illustrator.

https://jamesprovost.com/

He has a bunch of interviews at https://technicalillustrators.org/ (which he co-founded) but I didn't find an interview of him.

On his blog in 2014 he notes in passing some of the tools he uses. https://jamesprovost.com/blog/surface-pro-3-for-illustrators

Re: Roll Your Own All-Sky, Raspberry Pi Camera

#35

Post by Tepix »

dheera wrote: post #32

I really wish RPi would come out with a truly HQ camera. Their "HQ" camera is really a LOW quality camera with a shitty sensor that isn't even micro-four-thirds. The lens choices are abysmal. I want to see at LEAST APS-C or better yet full frame. Considering a full-blown mirrorless full frame camera costs $2400 it shouldn't cost more than $1000 for sensor only, and I'm 1000% willing to pay for a hackable, programmabl…

The camera is good for its price. If you want a MFT sensor, why don't you use something like a Lumix G9 and connect it to the RPi via USB? It's a lot less than $1000 these days.

Re: Roll Your Own All-Sky, Raspberry Pi Camera

#36

Post by teamonkey »

omneity wrote: post #33

Slightly off-topic, but did anyone ever run a sky camera with a vision model that recognize what it sees? Like Meta’s SAM.

Plate solving - identifying constellations and deep sky objects by the relative positions of stars - is a pretty common part of astronomy software and possible on a raspberry pi. For example https://github.com/dstndstn/astrometry.net

I'm not aware of anything that can, say, identify a meteor and differentiate it from a plane or satellite, but I'm sure it's possible.

Re: Roll Your Own All-Sky, Raspberry Pi Camera

#37

Post by teamonkey »

dheera wrote: post #32

I really wish RPi would come out with a truly HQ camera. Their "HQ" camera is really a LOW quality camera with a shitty sensor that isn't even micro-four-thirds. The lens choices are abysmal. I want to see at LEAST APS-C or better yet full frame. Considering a full-blown mirrorless full frame camera costs $2400 it shouldn't cost more than $1000 for sensor only, and I'm 1000% willing to pay for a hackable, programmabl…

I do think the HQ camera is due an upgrade, though I'd prefer a proper low-light camera, ideally Sony Starvis.

Although you can buy cheap Starvis modules you don't have full control over the exposure time and/or can only shoot in a compressed format. The HQ camera is well-supported with good drivers, like all Raspberry Pi hardware, which is why people still use the HQ Camera for cheap astronomy projects despite having a small sensor and poor low-light performance.

Re: Roll Your Own All-Sky, Raspberry Pi Camera

#38

Post by malfist »

gmiller123456 wrote: post #19

The Pi cameras might seem like a good choice because they're cheap, and might be a good way to start. But with all of the work required to build, install, and maintain one, the cost of the camera is a drop in the bucket. I used a much better camera from ZWO (ASI462MC) for about $300 (I actually ended up building a second one with the ASI462MM (monochrome)). It even comes with an all sky lens. IMHO it doesn't make a l…

You're doing astophotography is Louisville? I'm doing it in Lexington! We should chat

Re: Roll Your Own All-Sky, Raspberry Pi Camera

#39

Post by teamonkey »

ShadowBanThis01 wrote: post #3

Is there a MIPI camera that doesn't suck? I have every official Pi camera, and they are all just terrible. I would never use them for anything artistic, when it's easy to get far-superior results from even a cheap regular camera or used SLR. I'm just curious if there's a very-high-quality camera with a MIPI interface. Thinking it through... I only really care about video. Even if it's only HD resolution, something wi…

For light sensitivity there's an Arducam IMX482 MIPI module. Unfortunately you don't have a lot of control over it and can't take long exposures, but it's probably fine for HD video. Every other cheap low-light module I've seen is hobbled in some crucial way, either at the hardware level or drivers.

Re: Roll Your Own All-Sky, Raspberry Pi Camera

#40

Post by teamonkey »

malfist wrote: post #2

I've been in the process of planning a backyard observatory some and have been looking at all sky cameras to measure clouds, seeing and sky glow. This project looks really promising, especially if it has an ascom driver

https://github.com/IanCassTwo/rpicam-ascom-alpaca
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