Sky Watch Project!

Hey all,

Ive just been looking around on Sourceforge for any open source software that will do the job of motion detection, etc and came across some software called Senriska.

Here's the link: sourceforge.net...

As far as i can see it pretty much covers everything that would be needed for a user involved in Skywatch and best of all ITS FREEEEEEE

I do intend to start testing out this software however i would also value anyones opinion

Another excellent feature of this software is it will work with cams via USB or IP which means that it can also work with cams over the internet, that we may want to set up in the future when/if Skywatch expands.

Cheers all,

Dal

[edit on 29/5/2007 by chroot]

Well its been a year and with all the recent activity in the UK im reminded of this thread which never really took off as far as i know, did anyone ever setup a window cam or anything?

Im thinking of going through with it this time, i have since got a better spare pc, just need a hd webcam which im glad to see you can get for a reasonable price now, anyone up for joining in this time?

reply to post by just theory


Hi JT,

What did you have in mind? I can put my camcorder back on 24 hour record looking at skies. The files are huge so uploading anywhere would be a stretch. I am welcome to more ideas.

Take care,

reply to post by Stockburn


Nothing fancy really, we just need people to participate and upload anything they find, we don't need to have a web site but it might be good to have a blog page or something somewhere, however it would be good to keep things mainly on ats.

Thanks for kicking the beast back to life, my friend.

Count me in - as an interested observer and participant.

Was wondering if anyone got the senselink sw to run. It was a bit buggy for me and I off-loaded it.

My desire is still to hook up something to my EX125pe and just let it run all night while I sleep. Them in the morning (or every few days even), I can review the downloads and see if anything interesting shows up.

Ideally, if several of us (or better yet, a cast of thousands) are all doing it, we're bound to eventually grab something other than a 747 or a flock of seagulls cruising through.

My scenario would be to try and automate the routines as much as possible. The problem we have run into and will again, is that everyone is busy, has work, family, etc., so if it becomes a burden, especially if a drudgery of sifting through hours of black sky all the time - interest will wane and enthusiasm for the project will evaporate - again.

I'd like to be able to run the scope and sw, linked to my home server, then purge the files upon review to keep storage resources manageable, saving only the anomalies and their marginal brethren to share with y'all. The best case scenario would be perhaps a few hours per week of actual hands-on attendance, the rest to be reasonably automated.

The sky is there every night - but we need our sleep (etc.), and I would go nuts trying to ogle it all. But lots of eyes, from all over the world, captured on film (including some IR, etc.), then shared among fellow enthusiast periodically - now that's something I can get my arms around!

p.s. Been a member of the ATS SETI team for a while now, and an individual participant for many years before that. Intriguing perhaps - but you never really hear about any decent results, and it's just not the same as monitoring your own piece of sky hoping a diamond sails into view. it's like reading about some lucky schmuck finding treasure - or actually stumbling upon the gold yourself - quite a different feeling I'd say...

Thanks for the revival - let's get this off the ground THIS YEAR!

I had the domain name and bandwidth purchased just noone I knew could write the code for people to link there own sky cams. i wanted an organized site where you could say select camera from specific states, Maybe select the 5closest cameras and it would bring them all up on the screen to watch. Also it would need to option to screen capture. Thus sending the screenshot onto my main email for me to put on the site for more evaluation etc. or put here for more evaluation. This was a great idea. like I said I have the sitename and space purchased just never got it going.

It's good to see you guys are still around, I do think the idea could work but it needs to become a bit more popular here on ats to be worthwhile, I think the main problems of video checking and setup can be sorted as im hoping all it would take is some motion detection software to set flags on each detection, that would cut down on viewing by a fair bit, then theres the camera quality but we now have reasonably cheap HD ones available and theres the possibility of attaching a low magnification telescope which could scan the sky using some sort of motorized setup.

I did eventually get hold of a cheap telescope last year and it's really easy to attach a webcam to, all you do it take off the lens so the bare ccd is showing then attach a tube to it so it can be inserted into where the eyepiece goes.

Im not sure how much good this might be to anyone as I've not tried it yet but it's got the source code and says it can take avi's.

www.codeproject.com...

I feel kind of bad for not trying hard enough to get this going more last year, especially as ExCloud got a domain for us, thanks again and im sorry about it, hopefully this time we can get something going.

I've setup a social network site at skywatchproject.ning.com... but if you still have the domain that’s cool, I thought this would be the easiest way as we can just use that and all the free hosts about like youtube, imageshack etc like normal, I also recently found out about www.ustream.tv which should take care of the live streaming side of things if anyone wants to do that, im working on the social network site at the moment but feel free to join now if you like!

reply to post by just theory


Thanks, JT - I'll check those web sites out.

Yes - the interest for such an endeavor seems a bit on the weak side, doesn't it. That strikes me as very odd. All these fine ATS armchair 'researchers' that jump all CGI-this and debunked-it-that with sometimes thousands of posts on a flimsy piece of digital art or fuzzy speck yet you can count all the folks interested in actually capturing something worthwhile for themselves on one hand. Go figure...

Anyway - I'll keep at it - alone if I have to. And I welcome the company of those that share the logic and promise such a quest represents.

Let's keep breathing life into it - one day it just might bear fruit...

p.s. the v-cam connected to the scope is not a problem as much as is a rig to snag motion-sensed objects, track, and film for later review - unattended. It amazes me that no one has put together a reasonably simple spec for something like that yet...

Later, may friends...

Yeah it's a shame not more want to give this a go at the moment but hopefully over time we can get more interest, it really needs to be a group effort otherwise it will be all too quiet, thats why i setup the social networking site, i want people to post ideas and stuff themselves because thats the best way to keep interest going.

I've tried more setup ideas and i think the best and simplest anyone would want is a small low power telescopic lens (like this) attached to a webcam or camera, i found my telescope was simply too big and covered such a tiny part of the sky due to being magnified way too much, that might sound good to some at first but sadly with magnification comes smaller field of view, so even if this was panning back and forth on a motorized setup you would only pick up a tiny line of the sky, not so good.

When i can afford to i want multiple cams, one to track and give a full view, and another with a telescopic lens, maybe even a third with yet another higher magnification scope but this would be getting tricky, i still think a basic setup of panning webcam and modest scope is enough and could be built by anyone, we just need to come up with a few simple diy ideas to get people going.

Of course remember no one needs anything more than a webcam pointing out their window, anything would be good to start and who knows what you may find, there can be some great weather and scenery for one.

Oh yeah check this out!

Modding a camera to see into the infrared

I've done this mod myself and have the same webcam as in the first link, however that webcam has quite a poor resolution so i wouldn't use that one, though it should give some idea of what you might need to do with various webcams that don't have the IR filter painted on the lens, though even those can be removed if done right, be careful though, you do so at your own risk!

How to Make a Webcam Into an Infrared Camera

Instructables infrared+camera search

We need a lot more people to take part in this, you don't need to sign up to the swp site, just take part and post in this thread if your interested, think about it, people randomly see ufo's just by chance, imagine how much more could be caught when you have hundreds of cameras watching the sky 24/7!

I think this is a fantastic Idea.

Let me offer a solution to those who want to participate. Hows about we look for people that can record stuff on a regular basis and get their location?

We could use a frappr map or something similar, maybe report in with weekly findings to a group or thread?

Just throwing the idea out there. If you are interested and the project is still ongoing please could you U2U me. I read somewhere the organiser has a website but i cant see or find the link.

Many thanks

edit* just realised the website doesn't look like its operational. Thats a shame. I'll contact all the old interestees and see if they are willing to observe. I'll start this up again.

[edit on 1-4-2010 by Superiorraw]

Sky Watch
We are a group of people who each have a sky watching station at home, for the detection of unidentified flying objects and any interesting astronomical sights or anomalous phenomena, we record our location and basically report in on a weekly basis any photographs/videos that we have captured. We report using video links from googlevideo or youtube and via blog.

Project Sky Watch

Mission / Vision
Is to capture truely fascinating objects or phenomena in the sky, whether it be at day time or night time. Once we get this evidence we publish it to the community for discussion and analysis.

If you would like to participate in becoming a sky watcher project member simply click the contact us section on the website link above.

This is what I have so far. I have also contacted previous Sky Watch members.
Stockburn
Outrageo
chroot
Excloud
dainoyfb
Just theory

does anyone know of a really good world community map maker? their used to be this site called frappr but I can't find it?

This is a great idea...

I am just about to move to a new house i purchased and am more than willing to get a rig set up to record the skys and get invloved in this project!!!

Very good idea.. just in need of more attention by others

In concept, your idea is great OP. But in reality...I dunno.

Unless the whole system is automated, and the software able to recognize anomalies in the frame captures, it would be tedious work scanning the captures with the naked eye.

Just posting this to bump the thread!!

second line

I've managed to find myself a connector for my camcorder. So my footage from the camcorder can be recorded onto laptop for playback on the big screen tv downstairs and uploaded onto Youtube.

I will have a skywatch station fully operational by the end of tonight.

My only remaining enemy is the weather, everything here is so cloudy tonight and its throwing it down with rain. I hope it clears up in the next few hours so i can get at least a few test runs with it.

Ok an update to the Skywatch Project, I actually have 3 confirmed project participants. As stated above i did contact a couple of people on here and i have some other contacts who i hope might be taking part.

A list of the current participants can be seen on the website via my link in my signature below. Can anyone recommend a really good community mapping site similar to frappr?

Hey Guys.
I've been in touch with Stockburn & Ukalienhunter. This morning I was able to add a skywatch map to the website to show the locations were at.

This should give any potential members of cities we aren't covering a chance to step forward and offer more coverage.

I've also filed a report in the news section from my observations yesterday you can read about it here: projectskywatch.yolasite.com...

I'm still in the process of uploading to Youtube so that I can post up on the science/space exploration camcorder thread as I do need help and advice.
it's proving to be a little trickier as the files were in a format not recognised by WMM and i've had to convert each video file so that I can use them.

With a little more persistence I should have some comparison videos and more info on this later on this afternoon. Thanks for your interest, help and advice.

Hi there,
Just wondering if any of you could help out on the science and technology thread?
I've just uploaded 2 pieces of footage at this thread:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Any advice on what video recorder to get and your contribution would be much appreciated.

In Friendship
Richard

I've found a good map maker. it's called:
Community Walk

I've now added this to the website as per my initial idea. We have 3 contributors added to the map. Please if you are reading this and would like to become an observer and part of the skywatch project, either send me a U2U or email me: [email protected]

In friendship
Richard

Sky watch?

Free motion detection (SonotaCo):

sonotaco.com...

Free version or better V2 version (30 day trial)

binoculars + webcam (remove red ir-filter). You can watch sky and make video if you want.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/3d19e8681593.jpg[/atsimg]