How I Built My Allsky Camera

I’ve had an interest in building an allsky camera for a few years now. The idea that you can photograph the entire night sky with long exposures and the software handles creating startrails, timelapse videos, keograms and more is amazing. It took a lot of research to figure out what software and parts to purchase. I chose Thomas Jacquin’s Allsky camera software as that was the only one that I know at the time purpose built for running on a Raspberry Pi. There are others but I’m satisfied with this project. Here is what I used to build my allsky camera.

PartsCost
DJC Supply Co. 6″ x 6″ x 3″ PVC Enclosure$16.99
Aluminum 1″ round louvers$8.72
Antenna Mast Mount with U-Bolt Clamps$16.99
ANMBEST M20 RJ45 Waterproof Cat5/5e/6 Connector$16.99
SUPREMETECH Acrylic Dome Clear 3″$10.99
zwo ASI178MC Color Camera$250.00 (used)
Seadream Angled USB 3.0 Printer Cable$7.99
Raspberry Pi 4B 8GBfree from a friend
Easycargo Raspberry Pi 4 Heatsink Copper Kit$8.99
SanDisk 256GB High Endurance Video microSDXC Card$34.99
Waveshare POE Hat for Raspberry Pi 4, 12v and 5v outputs$25.89
HELLOYEE Breadboard Jumper Wires, Female to Female 12”$12.99
WWZMDiB 1Pcs 5V 1 Channel Relay Module$5.99
Dew Heater Module for All Sky Camera~ $25.00
HiLetgo SHT31-D Temperature and Humidity Sensor$8.49
Abireiv Cat6 Outdoor Shielded UV Resistant 50ft Ethernet Cable$18.99
EZ 31 Roof Eave Antenna Mount/Gable End Bracket$56.00
1-1/4″ OD x 5′ x 16 Gauge Antenna Mast Pipe$18.00

I would definitely remind people to measure many times before ordering, cutting, or drilling. I made several goofs necessitating ordering replacement parts.

Things I want to change:
* Better cable/wire management: I just have everything thrown inside the enclosure.
* Fix focus: The set screw throws off your focus. Need to come up with something better.
* Different enclosure: I don’t think the PVC plastic will last under UV sunlight.
* Better camera lens: These seem to be made from unobtaintium right now. Looking for 1.55MM 1/2″ CS Mount Lens. Arecont is the “gold standard” but they are no longer manufactured.
* Configure remote web server: Upload images to this website.

Update 11/6/2024: If I were building it today…..

If I were building the Allsky from scratch today, I would swap out some of the parts above with the following:

Raspberry Pi 5 8GB Board$88.00
Waveshare RPi 5 PoE M.2 HAT+$32.99
Industrial rated 2242 size NVMe SSD equivalent?
Focusafe 5MP CS Mount Fisheye Lens 1/2″ 1.55mm 185deg FOV$63.46


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