The Aurora Cam

First Images

Uploaded 1/4/04

Below are the first set of completely automated images with the new robotic camera setup. On our first clear night in weeks, I finally tested the system for two hours under the most grueling conditions. The temperature was well below freezing, and the humidity was 98 percent. Sheets of ice were forming all over the ground, the camera frame and tripod. The tripod even became glued to the ground in an hour with ice. The Aurora Cam performed flawlessly as seen by the set of 12 images below of Orion rising with the full moon in the sky as well. In fact, with a 16mm fisheye, its hard NOT to get the moon in the picture! As you can see, some cirrus clouds moved in after a while, and ended the shooting session.

Before the sky completely clouded, a second hour of exposures were taken around the polar region, again without any problems. The lower image is a typical five minute frame from the sequence, with the usual star trails and nice lunar diffraction spikes. Also see the Animation.

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