Stars on Empire Tech IPC-T5442T-ZE

[guykuo]

Here is a night shot with 300 ms shutter exposure on 2021 IPC-T5442T-ZE 1/1.8" 4MP turret.
The darkest star I identified in the image is HIP 7224 which is a magnitude 11.729 star. There may be darker ones in the image, but they are below what I can ID using StarWalk.
It isn't the latest generation sensor, but pretty impressive for a security camera.

I've imaged Uranus on one of my SD49225T-HN (2019 1/2.8" starlight sensor PTZ). I thought that was pretty neat but Uranus magnitude only 5.58.
For comparison, average sensitivity magnitude for human eye is about 6.5 when full dark accommodated.

Granted, 300 ms is shit for motion capture, but this simple turret beats the pants off my eyes for looking at stars.

 

[ludshed]

Are those trees being illuminated by the IR or something from the house?

 

[guykuo]

IR from another camera at the house.
illumination on the 5442 is off

 

[ludshed]

If you temporarily shut those irs off I bet you’ll get even better star shots.

 

[guykuo]

If you temporarily shut those irs off I bet you’ll get even better star shots.

Probably so. This degree of sensitivity is already pretty insane.

 

[ludshed]

I wish this asshole cabinet company by me out in the country would put their new flood lights on motion only. I used to see the Milky Way with naked eye.

 

[Ri22o]

This was my sky cam the other night, even with all of the light pollution.

 

[guykuo]

What camera is you skycap?

 

[Ri22o]

4K-T180

I could be wrong, but my understanding is that it is two 4MP 1/1.8 sensored cameras clagged together and called 8MP (4K).

 

[guykuo]

Really impressive focus on the stars with that cam. Mine is nowhere near as sharply focused. I'll have to go back and manually tweak mine for night focus. .

I see the camera has set left sensor is a little more sensitive than the right sensor in your shot.

 

[Ri22o]

Especially for a 3.6mm fixed cam.

I run a manual exposure of 50-50 (preset, fixed exposures were too much or too little), gain at 50, and BLC turned on. Everything else is default, but this is also the only use for this camera so I don't need to dial it in to be brighter.

 

[guykuo]

Looking more closely at the left sensor, I think quite a few of the lit pixels are not stars, but rather sensor artifacts. The right sensor seems to be getting actual stars. I'm still trying to identify some starts. The left sensor pixels were confusing the heck out of me.

 

[Ri22o]

Not sure why it would have just happened then.

This is from yesterday morning.

 

[garycrist]

I use a 4K-X 3.6 it will see down to 7-8 with digital zoom. Last night I was up to 40 ish + stars in the Pleiades.
Looking at the Orion nebula, it looks like a large blob of a star. Sorry for the pic as it is copied from a cellphone pic.

 

[guykuo]

Thanks. That 2nd image is much better

 

[ludshed]

We should experiment. If one of you can find an old post; test-rig. I’ve got a lot of dahua cameras of different makes from starlight + to night color and thermal doing nothing. Might be fun for us to play with?

 

[ludshed]

The moon and Jupiter just now

and Orion, top, just left of center

 

[kd4e]

Has anyone compared one of these to the Empire Tech for sky watching?

"VALUCAM 6MP IP PoE Turret Camera Outdoor - 1/2.7” 0.002 Lux@F1.6 25fps Starlight, IVS Smart Detection Intrusion/Tripwire, Built-in Mic, 164ft IR Night Vision, Support SmartPSS & DMSS"

 

[garycrist]

Here is from a 4k-X 3.6 I just took.

I'll go outside and point it north in a few minutes.

 

[garycrist]

Here is the little dipper w/ big dipper upper right.



Some dust lanes too.