I've been following this post since it was created, knowing that I wanted to set it up. I finally got my old ASI290MC back from a friend, and proceeded to get some parts together. My goal for this build was to have something mobile, such that when I visit other places with better skies than mine, I could take it along.
The result of the effort on the hardware side is a PVC setup with a built-in tent spike for the ground that looks like this:
Inside the contraption is the camera, an RPi 4b+ and the power supply. An extension cord was added with the connection to the Pi power supply inside of the enclosure to protect it. I ended up cracking the dome when assembling, so have a different one ready to go.
The software has been working very well once connected, and the hardware is working as good as can be expected for an ageing CMOS camera with plenty of stuck pixels.
Thank you to everyone that helped make the software what it is today!
From this image, some observations:
1. my image sensor in the ASI290MC seems to not be centered with the lens. The right side of the image shows the barrel of the lens holder, and the left side does not. Not sure there is much that can be done here, maybe the circular cropping of the image would make it look better.
2. light pollution and clouds, yay.
3. my dome has glare, some possibly from the crack, some from the white surface. The PVC is not painted yet. I would go with a dark color, but then it will probably get too hot, and if I find a place in the shade during the day, that means part of the sky is obstructed.
4. daytime captures are great, clouds do crazy dances in timelapse
5. it would be nice if there was a way to send items that may not have uploaded correctly, from the viewer. Perhaps a `send this video` type link on each video that would match your criteria for the File Transfer configuration. I had some videos that did not get sent due to configuration issues, but I am not finding a way to send them later other than deleting them and re-creating them.
6. any of the text items that change as the image is being created overwrite each other in the top right, making a bit of a mess. Is this something I can configure around? If that data is written into the picture part of the image, there probably isn't much that can be done, but maybe that info can just be in the metadata part of the image, like EXIF? In this way, star trails and similar composite images would not be affected, but individual images could still display the information, or at least contain it?
7. My lens is only 150 degree. What cameras and lenses are people using to see closer to 170 degree?
8. Finally (geez), is there a place where people have been sharing images and videos created with this software?