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Adapter arrived, but have been too busy lately

Showcase of May's best seven nights with auroras and cloud formations. Best viewed in full screen, 4K quality, with audio on.

Extended version with soundtrack.

Here is a fun side effect of having a good resolution sky cam (Empiretech Color-4KT 2.8 mm) Was able to go back in recorded footage and find start & end of flight for a drone buzzing the neighborhood. The one who complained to me about the drone was not able to track it after it did its final...

Having too much fun with the Color-4KT footage looking for auroras now that I know how to process the video and what to look for in captured footage. I've found auroras on more nights near the main event like this on May 13, 2024. That wasn't super surprising. That inspired me to search in...

Finished the full length time lapse for this morning's showing. I did NOT adjust color saturation or hue. Only gamma adjusted the exposure for better contrast.

Surprised to see activity this morning (Thursday May 16, 2024) After spotting it on camera, I looked outside. Could BARELY see anything with my eyes. The Color 4KT sees so much more than human vision.

Here is the 4K 60 FPS version with longer duration and contrast.

Final Cut Pro. When I used to use iMovie I had to do the timing in two stages to get desired speed.

Aurora Friday Night May 11 2024 Time Lapse 170X A much more modest aurora display Saturday night (May 11, 2024) as opposed to the spectacular showing Friday night. Unfortunately, activity was waned before darkness descended. In compensation, we get far more stars, the Milky Way, numerous...

Processed and uploaded full night aurora time lapses Best viewed full screen with playback quality set for 4K. West View East View

Northern Lights Time Lapse 4K West View from east of Bellevue WA. Starting to process time lapses from captures last night. More to follow, but here is the first I've completed at 4K resolution. Best viewed fullscreen on Youtube

More to follow, but this is in opposite direction (west). It's basically right on top of us.

Early time lapse. Should get better capture as sky darkens.

Color 4KT's are picking up the northern lights overhead. I can barely see with naked eye, but on cameras it is pretty wild. Will be a great time lapse.

I would actually more expect this is a side effect of white balance being shifted. Notice how the color of white differs between the two scenes. When white point shifts, the scene colors can shift dramatically in hue and saturation. The amount and direction of shift depends on both the original...

Clear night allowed another M31 capture on the EmpireTech PTZ5A4M-25X. A couple satellites drift across the field. M110 is the smudge above the main galaxy

When I first moved here, the local news was going on about a drought. I looked around at the ferns and wondered “What drought?”

Love how she keeps chasing him down until he finally takes off

In stock configuration, the 12 DC jack does not output 12 volts when you connect ethernet to POE supply. Some of use modify the camera and bypass the blocking diode to convert that DC input into an output. Such a mod has even been used to power an external IR light, but obviously the...

It's a portrait oriented video, but my editing software only allows landscape. Hence, the time stamp is cropped off top of frame.

Was looking through old footage to see how our cameras have progressed over the years. Found this gem from 10 years ago taken by a Hikvision eyeball. Well.... it DID get to the front door.

Rainbows this evening without color adjustment in post processing. As a scenery camera, the EmpireTech Color-4KT is more real than real. Night scenes are way more than one can see by eye alone. The still is at 12:30 (after midnight) and lit only by moonlight. Love it as a scenery and sky camera.

You are going to pull down the camera to take care of this. Access is via the rear hatch of the sphere. Then you pull the camera module out the rear to access the window. Not safe or practical to do at altitude.

Good choice. Truthfully, I was a bit disappointed with going from the old 2MP to the PTZ4M-25X. The night imaging was bad enough that I had to add IR floods whereas previously I didn't need them. Just not sensitive enough on that 4MP on 1/2.8' resolution/sensor size combo.

It this a newly installed unit? Mine are almost always bumped out of position (moved manually) as I adjust the mounting. SOP has become, reboot post install to establish a good baseline position zero.

Here is what the vertical optical sensor and interruptor look like. When PTZ boots, the controller rotates until the interruptor blocks light across the optical sensor. That is how the PTZ board finds the motion limit. Horizontal direction has analogous optical sensor and interruptor. I...

The PTZ mechanism does not have an absolute position encoder. Instead the system does an initial calibration for horizontal and vertical “zero” when PTZ boots. From that point on position is tracked based on stepper motor counts. If anything knocks the camera position or if a motion is hindered...

Some progress on the new adapter shipment..... Package left the carrier facility. Salt Lake City Distribution Center, US This feels like forever.

Set to 250 msec shutter and gain 65 to capture this morning. Companion M110 is just visible as a small smudge above M31