The Straight-Up Cam

[Turtle]

I have kept this idea at bay for several years, as well as any attempt at implementing it. Here at least is the idea and pehaps letting it out may motivate me to implement it.
The idea is to set my video camera pointing straight up and using the Interval-Record option acquire a set of images for comparison. Most camera tripods - and home telescopes as well - do not permit travel far enough to point the instrument at the Zenith, so I have to come up with a little support table yet.
Part of my thinking is that the atmosphere is at its "narrowest" when looking straight up, so whatever I photograph is less susceptible to atmosphereic optical effects. Another part is that few if anyone is doing this. Whether you have an optical instrument or not, looking straight up is uncomfortable and/or requires special support & patience.
So, the idea is out & I may or may not implement it. I offer it for your consideration.

[infamous]

Originally Posted by Turtle

So, the idea is out & I may or may not implement it. I offer it for your consideration.

I say "go for it man"......... And I have a question sir Turtle, are you speaking about taking time lapse pictures to create an hour by hour record of overhead objects? Sounds like a good way to check for UFO's, IMHO.............Cool my friend, cool,.................Infy

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by infamous

I say "go for it man"......... And I have a question sir Turtle, are you speaking about taking time lapse pictures to create an hour by hour record of overhead objects? Sounds like a good way to check for UFO's, IMHO.............Cool my friend, cool,.................Infy

Done & done! Yes, time lapse. I have a Sony Digital Handycam & it has a menu option called Interval which lets you choose among 4 delay periods (30 sec, 1min, 5min, or 10 minutes) as well as four record times (2sec,1.5sec, 1sec, & .5 sec) I have the camera set to record 2 seconds every 5 minutes; it is pointing straight up with the top of the view oriented North.
UFO's, meteors, contrails, aircraft, clouds, stars....I plan to catch a bit of each.
The camera setup is temporary just now, with it propped on a stool with a duffel bag wrapped 'round it, the power supply on the ground, & a live feed cable running through the window to a TV. Nothing to report so far but clear blue sky. Weather permitting, I may try to keep it out as is for several days.
Thanks for the prodding Infamous; just what I hoped for. The Straight-Up Cam is now operational.

[infamous]

Originally Posted by Turtle

Thanks for the prodding Infamous; just what I hoped for. The Straight-Up Cam is now operational.

And we are witness to history in the making, you're the man Turtle, you're the man.........................Infy

[Mercedes Benzene]

Excellent idea Turtle!
That's a very, very good idea.

I'm going to have to try that myself.
In the mean time, would you mind keeping us updated every so often with pictures of interesting... things.

[TheBigDog]

Ideally I would do the experiment with two cameras a measured distance apart taking photos in sync with each other. You could then use triangulation to get the altitude of things you see my locating them in the simulantanious frames. Some method of initial calibration would need to be performed.

Bill

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Mercedes Benzene

Excellent idea Turtle!
That's a very, very good idea.

Credit where credit is due, and in this case my Straight-Up Cam idea is an expansion of a suggestion by my housemate Ace. To whit, when I was doing all the bird photography with the camera in a weatherproof enclosure, Ace suggested I set it upright with plexiglass over the lens opening & sprikled with bird seed in order to get close-ups of the undersides of the birds. Thanks Ace!

Originally Posted by TheGidBog

Ideally I would do the experiment with two cameras a measured distance apart taking photos in sync with each other. You could then use triangulation to get the altitude of things you see my locating them in the simulantanious frames. Some method of initial calibration would need to be performed.

Excellent observation B! I don't have the equipment for that (yet ), but I plan to do some calibration by holding a yardstick in the field of view until it exactly fills the frame side-to-side (then top-to-bottom), then measuring its distance from the focal plane of the lens. This is enough to determine the angle(s) of the cone of field-of-view. A couple of sightings of aircraft of known size overflying at a known altitude & I can have a rough rule of thumb at least.
My multi-camera scheme I mentioned is for viewing/recording clouds in the visual spectrum & uses 4 cameras. Three are at the corners of an equilateral traingle spaced a kilometer or more appart, with the fourth a straight-up-cam in the center of the triangle. The three corner cams are all focused on the same point directly above the straight-up-cam. The signals then need combining via computer software to form a three-dimensional view of the clouds.
So, this brings us up to the current experiment. As the 1 hour tape running at the 2sec/5min interval records about 3 days of activity, I am camping in the living room now at least that long. I have brought in my 13" TV with VCR so I can record 6 hours nonstop of the live feed. I then review the tape in FF (takes about 20 min) for any "hits" before rewinding the tape & re-recording it. The biggest potential problem is catching something good on the VCR but missing it on the camer's digital tape between record intervals; this because I can't put the VCR images onto the computer.
At night, I set the camera to either Nightshot or SuperNightshot infrared mode, where the Super mode keeps the shutter open 4 times as long & results in a brighter but jerky image.
Nothing but blue sky, a lone lingering cumulus cloud, & an over-flying bug to report so far.

[Turtle]

I have bungy'd the camera to the stool and weighted the bottom. In the few minutes that took I realized I am unavoidably gathering another set of data, which is the amount, type, & rate of fall of particulates out of the atmosphere. I found them nicely displayed on the up-pointing lens.

[Turtle]

The straight-up camera project now has an official designation: Project SUC.
I don't expect to have any photos for at least 3 days, unless I capture something extraordinary. I already utilized SUC to spot a flock of 12 geese overflying & heading North.
On the technical side, I have turned off the digital zoom & have the camera zoomed out to its max (normal lens). I have automatic exposure on, and manual focus on with focus at infinity. The SUC is on the road to discovery.

[Turtle]

The bungy idea didn't work well as some of the camera controls are on the back that I treated as a bottom. Tomorrow I plan to design & build a custom SUC enclosure to accomodate the circumstance. I have some concern as well about condensation developing on the SUC overnight.
Clouds moved in for awhile & then cleared & I have my first view of the stars. (The SuperNightshot mode is required for star observations.) I have the star Vega in the constellation Lyra just South of my frame center.
I have noticed that a part of the house eve is in the frame & so provides a perfect scale as the rafters are on 2 foot centers; tomorrow I'll measure the height of the eve from the SUC's focal plane.
This concludes this irregularly scheduled SUC report.