Atmospheric Observatory SkyCam

A high quality webcam has now been installed on the Atmospheric Observatory. Professionally installed by Incam Digital Surveillance on our 10 m instrument tower, the camera streams live and captured images via a secure wireless link to a client PC on the Observatory and ultimately onto the web via Ethernet link to the campus network.

The Axis 232D camera is capable of panning through 360 degrees and tilting through 90 degrees and has an 18x optical and 36x digital zoom.

Currently the SkyCam installation on the Atmospheric Observatory is operating in a simple live scanning mode. The camera has been configured to move between the following views; North, Tower instruments, East, Observatory site, South and West. The camera continually cycles through these positions, dwelling at each location for approximately 45 seconds.

In addition to the live scan the camera will soon be configured to capture hourly images of sections of the sky in much the same way as the current Met Office web cams. This will enable image archives to be built of current weather, cloud cover etc. for teaching and research.