Meteor on Tapo C320WS Thursday 2 March 2023 406am

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One of my two best meteor captures so far using my TP-Link Tapo C320WS home wifi security camera as a StarCam.
The camera is simply mounted outside on a short pole which I can very easily rotate to point in different directions or adjust the camera up and down. It is not in a dome as it is weatherproof. I haven't had any problems (so far) with condensation on the lens as the warmth of the camera unit itself seems to take care of that.
It is important to set the camera to Daytime mode so that the infrared lights are not on as these will attract and illuminate bugs. Also, turn off the green Status LED on the camera for the same reason.
The video resolution is set to the maximum available of 2560 x 1440 (QHD) at 15 FPS. The main field of view is approx 95 x 45 degrees but the corners are stretched out even wider due to the wide angle fish-eye lens. The camera allows detection recording but this does not tend to work for meteors etc.
I have a 64GB microSD card installed in the camera for continuous recording and can download any events directly from the camera over the wifi connection. The 64gb card holds about 5 days worth of continuous recording (or 10 recording 12 hours a night). The oldest recordings are recorded over.
The camera is wifi but also has an optional ethernet connection available (but no PoE Power Over Ethernet). I'm using wifi only.
The camera voltage is 9 volts. It comes with a 9v plug-pack with a 3 meter cable. I have added on another 10 meters of cable. I have also run it off a 12 volt battery using an electronic voltage regulator.
www.tp-link.com/au/home-netwo...
www.tp-link.com/au/support/do...
I'm also using a donationware home CCTV program called ContaCam which provides detection recording and also automatically generates a time lapse video every 24 hours just after midnight. The default frame rate for the time lapse is one image every 30 seconds but I have set it to 10 seconds. I set the video quality settings to maximum. There is a test mode in ContaCam that will generate red detection boxes around a moving object, which is quite helpful for quickly reviewing the previous night's footage and then I download any captures directly from the camera. Contacam is donationware and the developer asks for a donation of US$10 per installation - great value for an excellent software.
www.contaware.com/contacam.html

Опубликовано:

7 апр 2023

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Комментарии : 22

@MrU4theChillWind Год назад

Nice capture!

@DaveZee823 Год назад

Beautiful catch, Dazza!

@earthrise3672 Год назад

Awesome capture! It's rare to see them in the sky that long. 👍

@MargotChris 8 месяцев назад

This is one of the best reviews I have read, especially with the Contaware info. And exactly what I was wondering about. I have just ordered the Tapo c325wb, perhaps even better low light performance? Thanks!

@dazzathecameraman 8 месяцев назад

Thanks for your comment. I had not heard of the new C325WB until now, I have just been googling the specs and reviews. It looks like I will definitely be upgrading to that camera when it becomes available! I found this detailed review ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9c8ilL2igXc.html Something else you might find helpful is to check the Global Meteor Network data for meteor captures within a couple of hundred miles of your location. You will see some really nice captures that neither the ContaCam or Tapo motion detection will detect. You will have to wait a day or two for the latest data to be displayed. You can click on the individual meteors on the map and it will display the data in the table below the map. The date and time is displayed in UTC (which can be confusing). fireballs.nz/map/ Please let me know how your C325WB works out. Remember to set it to Day Mode and turn the Status LED off to avoid attracting bugs :)

@MargotChris 8 месяцев назад

@@dazzathecameraman I will definitely report back about the C325WB. I will probably mount this camera on a long pole down at the dock looking North, similar to my video here taken on the ice in March: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KLORjCHEKjE.html I hope to get meteors and aurora with the new camera. I also do ham radio, and we use a digital mode (MSK144) to bounce off the meteors out to about 900 miles.

@Mitchcraft. Год назад

I saw that once, just out my back garden. Was so amazing to see an actual shooting star "meteor" burn up like that. I have also seen satellites. The other day i saw something and i am not sure what it was, it acted more like a satellite but then faded in to darkness. It was clear, one of the most clearest nights i have ever seen, the moon was amazingly clear and extremely bright so it wasn't like it went behind a cloud. Do some meteors not have the trail behind them and just vanish like that? The entire experience was i was looking at how amazing the moon looked and a light started getting bright and was moving across the sky, it hit its bright point and then went dark, like tuning a light off with a dimmer switch.

@lorditsprobingtime6668 Год назад

The vast majority burn up before hitting the ground. A lot are just a quick little flash then gone, ones like he caught here are rarer but one I saw after spending a lot of my life camped out somewhere sleeping under the stars I've seen plenty of satellites but, only once have I ever seen one go very brightly right across the sky and vanish out of sight. Man, that was exciting but, very rare to see. There was one somewhere in Russia (I think) a few years ago that was caught on many dash cams and security cameras that was INCREDIBLE!

@dazzathecameraman Год назад

From your description, it sounds like you saw a bright satellite such as the International Space Station entering the shadow of the Earth, or possibly an Iridium Satellite flare (or similar). The only reason we can see satellites at all is due to the sunlight reflecting off them. If you happen to be in just the right place, you can see a "flare" of bright light due to the angle of the reflected sunlight passing across your location. A few years ago, the website Heavens-above.com used to publish predictions for Iridium Satellite flares. These were very bright. I recommend going to heavens-above.com (or using a suitable satellite prediction app), be sure to set your location, then check for passes of the International Space Station or the Chinese Space Station, Tiangong. On some nights you will see one of them fading into the shadow cast be the Earth - exactly when predicted. It would be interesting to hear back from you if this is like what you saw.

@Mitchcraft. Год назад

@@dazzathecameraman Yeah your explanation of something being in the reflection of the sun and leaving it sounds like a good explanation for what i saw thanks.

@Mitchcraft. Год назад

@@lorditsprobingtime6668 Yeah the one i saw like in the video was an amazing sight to be seen. So beautiful to see with the naked eye. I think the best though was the comet in the mid 90's , hale bopp iirc? I remember my dad and i going out every night and looking at it. We were so lucky to have been in a time to witness something so amazing.

@lorditsprobingtime6668 Год назад

@@Mitchcraft. Yeah, sorry, I muddled a few different ones together. I really should have made clear which was which as I went. Daz explained the other, probably much more likely ones to your disappearing satellite one that I meant to suggest as a possibility, (more like probability) the earth shadow reason. If it wasn't zipping across the sky, it almost certainly WAS a satellite and possibly just changed angle enough or went into the shadow cast by earth into space. Oh man, the Hale Bop one! That was absolutely amazing! I was around and (as a laymen) did try to see the one I'd heard about all my life, the once in a lifetime Haley's Comet only to be frustrated and VERY disappointed. Hale Bop though, WOWEE!!! That one was amazing! I was lucky in that at one point during it's spectacular visit I helped a friend move interstate and we were driving north through an area in the great dividing range in Australia near a place called Coonabarabran except out of the town on top of the highest area in an area renowned for having a lot of astronomical observatories because it's high with very clean air. Anyhow, it was right in front of us most of the way but, we HAD to stop when we got to that spot. We got out, and just stared at the Milky way with SO many more stars visible that I've ever seen before and Hale Bop looking absolutely incredible. Oh man do I wish I'd had even the phone camera that's built into this thing that's NOW always with me lol. Oh BTW, that one I mentioned that went right across, that WAS burning up as it went. I actually was pretty sure it must have hit the ground only a few miles away but I would have heard a sonic boom if it was that close AND should have heard/felt or had some hint but there was nothing. I can only assume it either did burn up, maybe quite a distance from me or maybe even skipped off the atmosphere. I don't know but, I remember it appearing on or close to one nighttime horizon, passing right over me lighting things up pretty good then vanishing over the other horizon, all in a second, possibly 2. That was by far the most spectacular (apart from Hale Bop, maybe) I've ever seen. I seem to be 1 of only a few (at least as far as I could tell at the time) to have seen that. I did live outside of a small country town in a very sparsely populated area though so, maybe.

@lorditsprobingtime6668 Год назад

I have seen one much better BUT, never caught one near as good as yours on camera. Nice catch!

@arthurwalsh775 Год назад

hey dazz your buddie against the grain channle about nibiru is back at it

@azminawwar8820 4 месяца назад

I considering to buy tapo cs320ws for sky monitoring because this video, May I know what hardware version did you have for this ? I read some comment that V2 version of C320WS is not good as older version

@dazzathecameraman 4 месяца назад

Correct, the version 2 hardware version of the C320WS is not as good as the V1 for sky monitoring. The image is quite light and noisy. It does not have the same contrast as you see in this video. I have just bought a C325WB which performs much better but you need to set the spotlight LEDs to on and tape over the same spotlight LEDS. This seems to change the camera's exposure settings and improves the contrast. I will post some video links for you below a little later. I use ContaCam to detect meteor events etc

@dazzathecameraman 4 месяца назад

Check out the recent videos by my friend MargotChris. In his latest videos, he is using a C325WB. www.youtube.com/@MargotChris/videos When I get time, I'll try to post a video showing a comparison of the V1 and V2 of the C320WS - and later a comparison with the C325WB.

@azminawwar8820 4 месяца назад

Thank you for your information, unfortunately my C320WS is waiting to shipment but I don't know later it will get the Version 1 or Version 2, are turned on spotlight lamp & cover the lamp with tape will be beneficial to improve C320WS V2 ?

@dazzathecameraman 4 месяца назад

@@azminawwar8820 "are turned on spotlight lamp & cover the lamp with tape will be beneficial to improve C320WS V2 ?". I will test it to confirm, hopefully overnight tonight (it is aftrer 6pm here now). I can tell you it doesn't help the V1, it makes it worse. You might like to email me at dazzathecameraman at outlook dot com and I can send you some info, screen shots etc

@dazzathecameraman 4 месяца назад

@@azminawwar8820 I taped up the spotlight LEDs, set them to the lowest brightness and then set them to on and it vastly improved the contrast and removed all the video noise. I still think the version 1 C320WS is a better camera with more stars visible though, but on the version 2, the LED "hack" certainly helps.