[meteorite-list] Looking for an "All Sky Camera" host, OT just a little

From: Steve Witt <stelor96_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2011 21:58:43 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <197838.53859.qm_at_web56405.mail.re3.yahoo.com>

Greetings List,

A little off topic, but not too much. I'm a host for an "All Sky Camera" through Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque, NM. I have been trying to get things set up for some time and hope to be operational within a week. The reason for my post; I'm in Lake Station, In. A camera is soon to be operational in Terre Haute, In and we need one more host to establish a good baseline . Preferably the host would be either in the Lafayette, Kokomo, In area or in or around Bloomington Il. You would have to have a PC that you can devote entirely to the camera. The software used is called Sentinel. The PC used to run the Sentinel Software must meet minimum requirements:
1 GHz Processor
1 GB Ram
500 GB - 1 TB Hard Drive
CD ROM drive
1 Spare PCI slot available
An Internet connection so the camera can be treated as a network.
The software currently runs only on Windows machines. XP is the preferred version to run with the software. Sandia provides the camera and housing, see:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevewitt/sets/72157626015869010/detail/

This will give you an idea of what the unit looks like. Sandia also provides a Hauppage Video Capture Card that installs in the PCI slot on your PC and of course the Sentinel software.

It is the responsibility of the host to install the camera in a suitable location (with as much sky view as possible). Supply 110 V AC to the unit and to run a coax cable from the camera to your PC. Once everything is set up you program the system to activate above a certain light thresh hold and the system will capture any and all events. Lots of times birds, airplanes etc .etc. A good amount of meteors and hopefully on occasion a bolide event. It is up to the host to go through the events captured and weed out the garbage, of course look for entering meteoritic material. The camera housings are not all the same as you can see in the above photos and the innards vary also, but to give you a general idea, here are the specs on one system:

*CCD Hi-Cam Tech HB-710E / SONY
Image Device: 1/2" Interline Transfer CCD
Total Pixels: 811 x 508
Effective Pixels: 768 x 494
Pixel Size: 8.4 x 9.8
Resolution: 580 TV Lines

 *Lens
Rainbow L163VDC4P
Focal Length: 1.6 ~ 3.4mm
Aperture: 1:1.4
Angular Field of View: 180? x 114.1? at 1.6mm
                                    84.3? x 55.8? at 3.4mm
Iris: Auto-Iris

*Housing
4" PVC pipe
Flanged fittings
5" Acrylic Dome
Height: around 20" tall

 *Internal Components
Heating Elements
Thermostat
Air Circulating Fan
All 110v AC

 This is obviously not a first come first served deal. The host has to be someone who will give this the proper attention it deserves. If you're interested, please contact me off list. There are already at least 3? List members who are hosting cameras. I consider it an honor to be a host and hope you would feel the same. Any questions, please contact me off list and I'll do the best I can to answer them. Thanks for your time.

Best,
Steve

Steve Witt
IMCA #9020
http://imca.cc/


      
Received on Thu 10 Feb 2011 12:58:43 AM PST