Sky Cameras

I build cameras with Raspberry Pi computers and my own 3D-designed and -printed housings to watch the sky so I don't have to. It's mainly about meteors, but also whatever else happens to pop up, night or day. West, East, and South are 6mm lenses looking in those directions from my roof in San Francisco's Miraloma Park neighborhood. Fisheye is a 3mm lens looking straight up (north top, west to the right). Allsky2 is a 16mm lens, with a much more zoomed-in view. Right now it's pointed south and about 70-degrees up to catch T Coronae Borealis, a recurrent nova expected to become naked-eye visible when it goes nova sometime (probably) soon. During the day Allsky2 looks pretty abstract; you're seeing zoomed-in clouds and blue sky mainly.

Jump to: Sunrise Timelapses | Sunset Timelapses | Keograms | Startrails | Animated Startrails | 24-Hour Timelapses

Current Views

Updated every three minutes or so.

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Sunrise Timelapses

Each camera sees a different view of the sunrise, and it's not always East that's the most interesting.

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Sunset Timelapses

Similar for sunset. That's the southern slope of Mt. Davidson, highest peak in San Francisco, in West's frame.

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Keograms

Sky conditions for the whole night at a glance. Time across the top. Keograms were invented by aurora scientists and are used widely. Also I think they're beautiful.

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Startrails

The whole night, as if the shutter were left open for hours as the stars moved across the sky. The chaos you see is airplanes, helicopters, satellites, and occasional meteors. South is looking across a common lane for airplanes from SFO Airport, so it's especially busy.

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Animated Startrails

Try one and see how startrails are built up in the course of the night.

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24-Hour Timelapses

A 24-hour, sunrise-to-sunrise movie for each camera.

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