Looking for advice on starlight camera for live stream

[Spaced Out]

Hi All

I’m here to see if anyone can offer advice/suggestions for a suitable starlight camera for live streaming day and night, but with a particular focus on the night sky including the northern lights.
I know nothing about these sorts of cameras but I’ve seen this one which has good reviews and is cheap but I don’t think it will allow embedding into a website for live streaming.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tapo-Weatherproof-Detection-Starlight-C325WB/dp/B0CB1TGPJG/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2Z42NOMYKCMYZ&keywords=tapo%2Bc325wb&qid=1702490364&sprefix=tapo%2Bc325wb%2Caps%2C82&sr=8-2&th=1

Is there something out there similar/better that will allow ftp to a website ?

In summary I need it to be:

Colour not IR (I guess ?)
Excellent in low light to pick up stars, milky way, aurora etc
Wide angle
Able to embed the live stream into a website
Not too expensive, I guess under £200.

Does such a thing exist ?

Thanks

 

[wittaj]

Starlight is simply a marketing term and really doesn't mean much.

Many people are using these as sky cams:

EmpireTech IPC-Color4K-T180 4K Full-Color 1/1.8" CMOS Dual-Lens Splici

Dual 1/1.8" CMOS Image Sensor | Outputs 180° wide angle splicing image | Built-in warm light | The max. illumination distance is 40 m | Built-in Mic and speaker supports two-way talk | IP67 protection | EPTZ function | SMD3.0

empiretech01.com

EmpireTech IPC-Color4K-X 8MP 1/1.2" CMOS Full-color Fixed-focal Warm L

8-MP 1/1.2" CMOS image sensor | Built-in warm illuminator | The max. illumination distance is 60 m | Built-in Mic and speaker | supports two-way talk | ePoE, IP67 protection | SMD 3.0

empiretech01.com

 

[Spaced Out]

Thanks they look interesting, I'll look into them some more.

I forgot to add that ideally I don't want a camera with lights on, I presume there would be a setting to turn those off tho ? Also I don't need detecting movement or any other security features, but I guess most have these as standard ? Just need a camera that performs well in low light and that I can live stream from. Sorry I'm a total newb at this !

 

[wittaj]

Yes those lights do not need to be on.

I put together a sky/roof rig with (4) 180* Color4K cams...

I decided I wanted to see ALL of the things... After some posts on here about weather and watching the sky, and wishing I would have had my own, better footage when a meteorite came down a few months ago..., I figured I would put together my own sky cam rig. And, because I can't just do things...

ipcamtalk.com

And the turret version of the 4K camera I linked:

 

[Ri22o]

Yes those lights do not need to be on.

I put together a sky/roof rig with (4) 180* Color4K cams...

I decided I wanted to see ALL of the things... After some posts on here about weather and watching the sky, and wishing I would have had my own, better footage when a meteorite came down a few months ago..., I figured I would put together my own sky cam rig. And, because I can't just do things...

ipcamtalk.com

And the turret version of the 4K camera I linked:

And those images are with a lot of light pollution. I'd imagine you would see much more in a more rural setting.

These are from the T180s.

 

[Spaced Out]

And those images are with a lot of light pollution. I'd imagine you would see much more in a more rural setting.

Thanks, I live in a rural area with nice dark skies, we can see the Milky Way at night and sometimes the Aurora Borealis appears. If I got one of these camera's (EmpireTech IPC-Color4K-X 8MP 1/1.2” CMOS Full-color) and set it to the lowest shutter speed would it give real time video of these features ? At the moment I have an ultra wide angle all sky cam that does long exposure photography and uploads the new image to a website every 60 seconds, I'd like to change that to a live stream video if the technology is good enough to see these features. I've seen some webcams elsewhere that do this but I suspect they use expensive high end cameras for this, difficult to find much info on those tho, sent a few emails had little back. I did find this one which looks impressive for such a cheap camera, but unfortunately you can't embed it to a website.

 

[Ri22o]

If you are more rural than I am and have light in the sky, instead of just stars, then the 4K-X is worth a shot.

My frame rate is set to 15fps and the shutter is locked at 50ms, which I think is around 1/20. The 4K-X will definitely be able to do real time, it's just a matter of how dark or light the scene would be based on available light. The 1/1.2 is a bigger sensor than the T180, but you're also jumping from 4MP to 8MP.

The video Wittaj posted is from the 4K-T (turret version of the X) and you can see the clouds moving across the screen.

 

[Spaced Out]

Thanks, so the 4K-X seems an interesting option. Now I'm a total newb to this so please don't laugh at these questions...

If you want to stream video non stop 24/7 I guess parameters will change as light changes through the day, can you set up these cameras to grab as much light as possible at night (without using any artificial light from the camera or elsewhere) and also run for normal daylight and do everything in between ?

Are these cameras suitable for embedding in a website and streaming 24/7 ?

Ta

 

[Ri22o]

Thanks, so the 4K-X seems an interesting option. Now I'm a total newb to this so please don't laugh at these questions...

If you want to stream video non stop 24/7 I guess parameters will change as light changes through the day, can you set up these cameras to grab as much light as possible at night (without using any artificial light from the camera or elsewhere) and also run for normal daylight and do everything in between ?

Are these cameras suitable for embedding in a website and streaming 24/7 ?

Ta

They have day and night profiles and I have different settings during the day versus at night. I believe my day profile is set to Auto, so it can make the call on exposure depending on weather conditions. Night is a bit more dialed in with a balance of letting light in but also not ghosting the moving images on the screen.

I believe they have RTMP support, so you should be able to stream directly from the camera with no VMS inbetween. However, I am streaming one of mine through Blue Iris as a weather cam through Ambient Weather.

They knock the quality down unless you pay for better, but it's here.

We also had a meteor shower come through last night. If I can find some good ones I'll pull the video and post it on here.

 

[Ri22o]

The video is still processing, but here is a pretty good clip I grabbed just before 230 this morning.

 

[bp2008]

I have a timelapse video and several snapshots at different exposure settings of a Color4K-X (bullet) cam here: EmpireTech IPC-Color4K-X is an amazing weather cam

I should point out that directly viewing the sun will cause minor sensor damage over time, which becomes quite visible at certain exposure settings. See the dark streaks, this is where the sun has been throughout the seasons. This cam has been installed in exactly that position for the last 2 years.

That is with auto exposure I believe:


And this one is my "regular" exposure time of 1/3 second (so the video stream updates 3 times per second):

 

[bp2008]

As for aurora, these cams will see it much brighter and more colorful than the human eye, especially with the cam tuned for maximum exposure time and allowed to use high gain.

 

[bp2008]

I believe they have RTMP support, so you should be able to stream directly from the camera with no VMS inbetween. However, I am streaming one of mine through Blue Iris as a weather cam through Ambient Weather.

Yes, I just came across a guide from Andy on live streaming to YouTube: EmpireTech IPC-Color4K-X is an amazing weather cam

 

[Spaced Out]

I have a timelapse video and several snapshots at different exposure settings of a Color4K-X (bullet) cam here: EmpireTech IPC-Color4K-X is an amazing weather cam

I should point out that directly viewing the sun will cause minor sensor damage over time, which becomes quite visible at certain exposure settings. See the dark streaks, this is where the sun has been throughout the seasons. This cam has been installed in exactly that position for the last 2 years.

That is with auto exposure I believe:


And this one is my "regular" exposure time of 1/3 second (so the video stream updates 3 times per second):

Thanks for this, really useful. that second image is exactly the kind of night sky quality I am looking for. My location would be looking north so it shouldn't get any direct sunlight on the sensor. So is that image just a random frame from a video/is it how the video looks at night when live streaming ? I'm looking to run a camera 24/7 and live stream to a website, obviously moonlit nights are very bright compared to nights without moon, will the camera compensate for light levels as they change or do you just set it for the darkest conditions and have daylight like video when the moon is up ? I'm starting to think this might be the camera for me ! Sorry for all the questions I'm a total newby.

 

[Spaced Out]

As for aurora, these cams will see it much brighter and more colorful than the human eye, especially with the cam tuned for maximum exposure time and allowed to use high gain.

Are there any examples available online of this camera capturing aurora ? I've done a quick google and can't find much.

 

[bp2008]

Are there any examples available online of this camera capturing aurora ? I've done a quick google and can't find much.

We're in Wyoming so this is a rare event, but we do have some good ones.

I live on the edge of a small town so there is a lot of stray light (hence the brightly lit hillside), and this cam is facing west so it does not catch as much as if it were facing north.





















My dad lives a couple miles out where it is much darker and he has one of these cams pointing north so it tends to capture more aurora:



View attachment scenery2.20230323_220118-220154.280.mp4

Here are some from a couple weeks ago:

 

[bp2008]

Thanks for this, really useful. that second image is exactly the kind of night sky quality I am looking for. My location would be looking north so it shouldn't get any direct sunlight on the sensor. So is that image just a random frame from a video/is it how the video looks at night when live streaming ? I'm looking to run a camera 24/7 and live stream to a website, obviously moonlit nights are very bright compared to nights without moon, will the camera compensate for light levels as they change or do you just set it for the darkest conditions and have daylight like video when the moon is up ? I'm starting to think this might be the camera for me ! Sorry for all the questions I'm a total newby.

Yes those are just simple captures from the video feed. It is only operating at 3 frames per second due to the 1/3 second exposure, so it is not super smooth video.

I do a day profile and a night profile, each configured as follows, and controlled by scheduled events in Blue Iris. Although the camera has its own profile scheduling capability, it does not self-adjust for changing sunrise and sunset times.

 

[Spaced Out]

Yes those are just simple captures from the video feed. It is only operating at 3 frames per second due to the 1/3 second exposure, so it is not super smooth video.

I do a day profile and a night profile, each configured as follows, and controlled by scheduled events in Blue Iris. Although the camera has its own profile scheduling capability, it does not self-adjust for changing sunrise and sunset times.

Thanks this is really helpful. Those aurora stills look great, just the sort of low light quality I'm looking for, you even have a subauroral arc there !

A few more questions from this… So do you have to program in the sunrise and sunset times for the whole year somehow to allow it to switch between profiles ? Does this Blue Iris software allow you to do this easily ? Are there any other software requirements for running this sort of cam and streaming ? Do you have any videos of the actual real time aurora ? Is your/your dads camera available online anywhere to check in on ? Thanks again.

 

[bp2008]

Thanks this is really helpful. Those aurora stills look great, just the sort of low light quality I'm looking for, you even have a subauroral arc there !

A few more questions from this… So do you have to program in the sunrise and sunset times for the whole year somehow to allow it to switch between profiles ? Does this Blue Iris software allow you to do this easily ? Are there any other software requirements for running this sort of cam and streaming ? Do you have any videos of the actual real time aurora ? Is your/your dads camera available online anywhere to check in on ? Thanks again.

It is a fairly complex setup in Blue Iris.

Blue Iris does not natively understand how to enable day or night profile in dahua cameras, so you have to teach it via custom PTZ preset actions. So I needed to enable PTZ for the camera instance in Blue Iris (even though the camera doesn't suport PTZ, it is necessary for the automation to work).
Then Edit presets, and add an "On call" action to one of the presets. The type of action is "Web request of MQTT", and the URL is http:// with path user:credentials@ipaddress/cgi-bin/configManager.cgi?action=setConfig&VideoInMode[0].Config[0]=0. That will cause it to change the camera to Day profile when that PTZ preset is loaded.
Then set up another preset for night profile, same everything except the 0 at the end of the path string needs to be 1 instead.

Then finally on that camera's Schedule tab, you can set up scheduled times (relative to sunrise/sunset so it changes slightly each day) to load each PTZ preset.

The video near the bottom of the aurora pictures is real-time, but it is H.265 which doesn't play properly in a lot of web browsers so you probably need to "download" the video and watch it in a player like VLC in order for it to play at the normal frame rate. I can only remember one night where the aurora changed this much, and that was it. Usually when we see color in the sky it is very slow to change.

And no, neither of those cameras is available online anywhere

 

[Spaced Out]

Thanks. So if I can get the camera connected to Blue Iris and control the day/night settings from there, is it then possible to live stream it direct to a webpage (wordpress) from Blue Iris ?