Some documentation about my indi-allsky setups for nightlapses, stargazing, northern light, runnig on Proxmox LXE. Using ZWO camera(s), old Android phones and IP camera's to capture the nightsky and all thats happening above us when we are asleep.
The night-sky is amazing isn't it? Even here in the Netherlands with a lot of light pollution, there is a lot to see at night in the sky, but we are asleep by then. As a Techie, Data and Automation guy I found some interesting posts on the www of people using specific made Astro camera's combined with Indi-Allsky (https://github.com/aaronwmorris/indi-allsky) software, running on a RPI. Creating Timelapses, Keograms, Panorama's, Startrails and much more, fully automated every night. Since I already own 2 proxmox servers, and have a lot experience using IP camera's, a new idea was born. What if i could use Old phones and IP camera's to do the same, comined with Indi-Allsky.
Some more details on the proces I had to go through, for creating a 1-2 minute timelapse of the night sky: Manually setting up an Old android phone in our garden, go through all the settings manually on the phone in the 'Deepsky' app (https://www.deepskycamera.de/), and offcourse connect the phone to a large powerbank, transferring (tons of) pictures manually and creating night-timelapses manually the morning after, thansferring back the video to phone and server manually. As you can imagine, this costed a lot of time and effort, resulting in just a short video.
Having a lot of luck, the guy creating the Indi-allsky (https://github.com/aaronwmorris/indi-allsky) software, created a way to connect to the JPEG stream of a network/IP camera. After some searching around, finding out there are not that many people using this kind of setup, I found a way to make it all work. And the best part, I finished finetuning the setup, just a couple of nights before the Northern lights storm (10-05-2024), and captured great content! Because there is so little information about this kind of setup, I created this documentation, as a guide. Since writing this documentation I also own a PlayerOne Mars-c 2 camera, using an IMX662 image sensor.
PlayerOne Mars-c 2 USB3 camera, dome-less and in a lunchbox with a 160 degree ZWO lens
Camera is placed on the roof of our house and fully waterproof (already resisted all kinds of weather)
https://player-one-astronomy.com/product/mars-c-ii-usb3-0-color-camera-imx662/
Hardware
Camera: PlayerOne Mars-c 2, ZWO lens 160 degree
Waterproofing: Lunch-Box (Action)
Software: Indy Allsky in a Ubuntu 22.04 Proxmox LXC
Power: 10meter USB3 cable (with power injection)
Google Pixel 4XL Android phone
modified, removed battery, powered by powerbank
Hardware
Camera: Google Pixel 4XL Android Phone, lens 240 degree
Android App: IP Webcam (transform your android phone in a IP camera)
Software: Indy Allsky in a Ubuntu 22.04 Proxmox LXC
Direct usb power or Powerbank 20000mah
No waterproofing
POE IP camera mounted outside in our backyard, pointed upwards (offcourse), with a 180 degree lens.
Hardware
Camera: REVODATA 5MP Mini Fisheye POE IP Camera, lens 1.7mm 180 degree, waterproof
Software: Indy Allsky in a Ubuntu 22.04 Proxmox LXC
Streaming App: Go2RTC (proxmox lxe or Home assistant addon)
Proxmox LXC Setup
https://github.com/kippesikgithub/allsky/blob/main/proxmox_lxc_setup.md
Permanent Setup PlayerOne Mars-c 2 Camera
Old Permanent Setup using a dedicated (POE) IP Camera
https://github.com/kippesikgithub/allsky/blob/main/dedicated_ip_camera.md
Portable Setup using a Android Phone
https://github.com/kippesikgithub/allsky/blob/main/android_phone.md
Setup: Permanent Setup youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nANrTtHyu7w
Setup: Portable Setup
youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyGsOYiEsdU
Setup: Old Permanent Setup
Setup: Old Permanent Setup
