Observatory Camera Server

www.arrakis.cc

For remote monitoring of Arrakis Observatory, I have set up a camera server.

The server has 4 inputs. The default input is to a pan/tilt/zoom camera mounted on the wall of the observatory. The pan/tilt/zoom functions are controllable locally over the LAN or from a web page via an imbedded JAVA script application. Visitors to this web page can control camera pointing and zoom. With administrative rights, camera control can be usurped if needed. Video is variable, but quite good over the LAN. High speed Internet video at 30 fps and control commands are also fairly good though there are some delays at times. Upgrading to a 500k upload speed has helped. I haven't experimented much with the quality settings, but there are a number of settings that may minimize web lags at the cost of quality.

The PTZ camera can monitor the observatory equipment and look over the wall of the observatory to the surrounding area or sky with the roof open. If you access "control" in the JAVA viewer, other server ports are viewable. The 2nd port is live video from a Stellacam EX piggybacked on the main scope as a video finder scope or it may be used through the main scope itself. The 3rd port is a feed from an STV unit. The various video streams can be monitored locally in the observatory or control room on CRT or LCD monitors or over the LAN on the computer monitor.

Your browser must be JAVA enabled to view the video. Users are given a minimum of 2 minutes control and are bumped off only if another control request is received. The lights will not always be on in the observatory so if you get only a black image try back during daylight hours.