Dashcam as stationary daytime meteor camera?

Fireballs

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I am pondering using a dashcam type system as a stationary daytime meteor/fireball camera for scientific purposes. I would have the camera under a clear plexiglass dome pointing up to the zenith of the sky and running during the daylight hours.

I am just beginning to explore this so any thoughts are welcome.

Question: If I run the camera all day would that create one large file on a memory card? Is it possible to program the recording to be continuous ten minute files?

Would direct sunlight damage the sensor? Or is there an iris in these cameras that stops it down?

Do you have any camera and/or lens recommendations for this application?

I am thanking you all in advance for any replies.

Thomas
 
I am pondering using a dashcam type system as a stationary daytime meteor/fireball camera for scientific purposes. I would have the camera under a clear plexiglass dome pointing up to the zenith of the sky and running during the daylight hours.

I am just beginning to explore this so any thoughts are welcome.

Question: If I run the camera all day would that create one large file on a memory card? Is it possible to program the recording to be continuous ten minute files?
Most will give you a sequence of 5 minute files which can be joined back together, if they fill the card then they make more space by deleting the oldest.
Would direct sunlight damage the sensor? Or is there an iris in these cameras that stops it down?
No iris in a dashcam but they don't seem to mind pointing directly at the sun, at least not at normal angles of use. If you were to point it directly south at the angle of midday sun then a filter to cut down the light might be sensible, for pointing at the zenith I would think it will be fine, depending on where you are of course!
Do you have any camera and/or lens recommendations for this application?
What field of view do you need, most dashcams are very wide angle...
 
I would use a upside down IP camera, and if you get a PTZ one of the slightly more expensive kind they will be able to track and zoom in on the movement.

A true cctv camera allso have all the features a normal camera have so it can compensate for high light in more ways than just lower ISO settings and exposure timing which is all dashcams can do in that regard.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111262651621
Or cheaper if you can make do with 720p footage.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251531673347
I am not sure if these PTZ cameras are watertight in mounted upside down, if they are these 2 are cool as they have a lens wiper for those wet days.

Sadly my PTZ camera dont have auto tracking, so i cant flip ip to make a demo recording for you, if you discard the auto tracking feature a 1080P PTZ camera can be had cheaper too.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/271804577363
On the side you will need a allways on computer to store your footage from the camera, or a dedicated NVR ( Network Video Recorder )
A 4 channel NVR dont have to be expensive and it will host a 2 Tb harddrive for much more storage space than any dashcam.
And you can still tilt it down to horisontally if installed upside down so you could still use it as cctv camera too.
 
Thank you Nigel and Kamkar for your information and links. I am going to study further and will be back with questions.

Regarding field of view desired I suppose the wider the better.

Thomas
 
I am pondering using a dashcam type system as a stationary daytime meteor/fireball camera for scientific purposes. I would have the camera under a clear plexiglass dome pointing up to the zenith of the sky and running during the daylight hours.

I am just beginning to explore this so any thoughts are welcome.

Question: If I run the camera all day would that create one large file on a memory card? Is it possible to program the recording to be continuous ten minute files?

Would direct sunlight damage the sensor? Or is there an iris in these cameras that stops it down?

Do you have any camera and/or lens recommendations for this application?

I am thanking you all in advance for any replies.

Thomas

Yes, long term exposure to direct sun will damage the imaging sensor in digital cameras. Part of the reason for this is the excessive heat generated on the sensor surface but also that they are simply not designed for such long term exposure extremes. Damage comes in the form of image burn-in, serious permanent color shifting and eventual complete failure as progressive sensor damage continues. Manufacturers of CCTV cameras always strongly advise against this practice and usually will not honor warranties when evidence of direct sun burn-in has been found to be the cause of damage. The small inexpensive sensors used in most dash cams are much more likely to fail than the more expensive ones used in surveillance equipment designed for 24/7 use.

I would agree that CCTV cameras and NVRs are a much better method for this purpose, assuming it might even accomplish this task adequately.

I'm just curious. As someone who owns and uses CCTV equipment I know from personal experience that trying to capture random fleeting events can be difficult when it comes to isolating and identifying them from 24 hour periods of recording. In other words, reviewing hours and hours of footage to identify the brief moments when a random meteor flashes across the sky would be an extremely tedious process that would require poring over ALL the footage, almost frame by frame. Doing this with dash cam footage as opposed to CCTV footage using a dedicated DVR or NVR would be even more difficult to accomplish. How are you proposing to do this? Professional astronomers have specialized software for this purpose.
 
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Yeah i am out on a limb too, might be best to ask around in the metorite chasing community before dropping money on anything.
I am not sure if motion detect in a IP camera / NVR can even pick up a passing metorite,unless its the size of the ones we seen in Russia lately and the Tunguska event.
Motion detect would be ideal if it work on these small & fast objekts.
What bother me the most is daytime as a passing by rock there is just a vapor trail about same size as the trails a airliner leave up there.
Night time may allso present a problem as there is often a bright "flash", so manual focus might be the best to use on a IP camera.

On the other hand dashcams do have a large FOV so you will capture a lot of sky, problem is a small event way up in the sky will appear in the footage as a narrow string of pixels, unless offcourse it is a major event.

I do plan on tilting my IP camera a little to be able to capture more sky, but i cant get much more as the balcony above block out a lot of sky.
But i just need a little so i can aim my camera at a high mast in the background to hopefully capture a lightning strike on it during a thunder storm.
 
"
I'm just curious. As someone who owns and uses CCTV equipment I know from personal experience that trying to capture random fleeting events can be difficult when it comes to isolating and identifying them from 24 hour periods of recording. In other words, reviewing hours and hours of footage to identify the brief moments when a random meteor flashes across the sky would be an extremely tedious process that would require poring over ALL the footage, almost frame by frame. Doing this with dash cam footage as opposed to CCTV footage using a dedicated DVR or NVR would be even more difficult to accomplish. How are you proposing to do this? Professional astronomers have specialized software for this purpose."

In the case of rare major daytime fireball events I would rely on public reports of the time of the fireball. And also I would check times of rare unexplained sonic booms which happen a few times each year.

I have a nighttime meteor capture system which uses an analog Watec-type video camera and capture software and have tried to pull out daytime fireballs but can't seem to get enough sky contrast to discern them. Also, a daytime fireball with the brightness of the full moon or Sun are rare over one location even at nighttime. I just had a video camera wear out after years of recording so am exploring new technologies I don't know about to see if they might be useful somehow.

Here is an archive of nighttime fireball captures from a few years ago if you might be interested: http://www.heliotown.com/Ashcrafts_Fireball_Archive.html

Thomas
 
Nice stuff Thomas :)

I for one would not mind to hear more from you as you move on with a new setup, myself i allso use cameras and IR light for shooting my airgun in darkness, and i do have a little telescope and a minur collection of cameras ( most in storage and regular SLR type )

Will get my IP camera angled up soon, so i can do some recordings of the sky at a low angle, just to see what my cheap IP camera can do in that regard.
I will post up here when i have some results.
 
"
I'm just curious. As someone who owns and uses CCTV equipment I know from personal experience that trying to capture random fleeting events can be difficult when it comes to isolating and identifying them from 24 hour periods of recording. In other words, reviewing hours and hours of footage to identify the brief moments when a random meteor flashes across the sky would be an extremely tedious process that would require poring over ALL the footage, almost frame by frame. Doing this with dash cam footage as opposed to CCTV footage using a dedicated DVR or NVR would be even more difficult to accomplish. How are you proposing to do this? Professional astronomers have specialized software for this purpose."

In the case of rare major daytime fireball events I would rely on public reports of the time of the fireball. And also I would check times of rare unexplained sonic booms which happen a few times each year.

I have a nighttime meteor capture system which uses an analog Watec-type video camera and capture software and have tried to pull out daytime fireballs but can't seem to get enough sky contrast to discern them. Also, a daytime fireball with the brightness of the full moon or Sun are rare over one location even at nighttime. I just had a video camera wear out after years of recording so am exploring new technologies I don't know about to see if they might be useful somehow.

Here is an archive of nighttime fireball captures from a few years ago if you might be interested: http://www.heliotown.com/Ashcrafts_Fireball_Archive.html

Thomas

Your archive is very interesting. I have a hunch dash cams are probably not the best technology for this purpose though.
 
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