The Sittel Field Skycam was installed on the roof on November 21, 2009. It is mounted at approximately 25 feet above ground level, on an antenna mast with rotator. The direction which the camera points may vary, depending on interesting weather or simply where I left the antenna pointed the last time I rotated it! The best views are to the north and east.
The camera is a StarDot Netcam XL 3-megapixel camera. I am currently capturing the images at 1024x768 resolution. The camera itself is mounted inside a heavy duty outdoor enclosure that will allow the camera to work in temperatures well below zero.
The camera power supply runs across the roof, through the attic and into our upstairs office where it is attached to a router. The image updates every 5 minutes 24 hours a day.
Here are some images of the camera:
Here's the camera in the outdoor enclosure. There's a small plexiglas square. The area above the plexiglas is open to the elements. The camera puts out enough heat though that hopefully there won't be freezing issues during the winter. I also hope there won't be issues with bugs getting inside either!
The camera is above the antenna rotor and below my APS-13 FM antenna. It's mounted at an angle about 70 degrees off from the antenna angle. I typically leave the antenna pointed towards Des Moines, IA, which corresponds to a camera view of due north.
A close up of the enclosure mounted on the mast. The camera is tilted slightly upwards to capture more of the sky in the image. While I didn't install the antenna, I did attach the camera to the mast. The mast mount sold by StarDot accepts masts of 2" diameter or larger, which is incompatible with standard antenna masts. The solution was to use hose clamps that mounted only to one side of the metal mount, and then wrapped around the antenna mast. You'll note there are two vertical slots on the metal mount that are empty; I'm using only the slots on the other side. This solution works surprisingly well!
And then the winds came... on November 25th, 2009 the winds gusted over 40 mph and, as a result, the lower antenna mast began to bend. The photo below shows how the bottom mast looked on Thanksgiving morning, November 26th. I had to climb on the roof during the 30+ mph wind gusts to retrieve the FM antenna and the camera, to make sure neither were damaged, nor cause damage to the roof.
Fortunately the antenna repairman was available on the day after Thanksgsiving. I was able to salvage the FM antenna by bending back the 4 damaged elements to a reasonably straight shape. It returned to its original mast on the lower rooftop, and the webcam got a new home on the higher rooftop on a dedicated mast and rotor. The end result is an even better picture!
Below is a 5400x480 image that covers the entire 360-degree pan of the camera. The image starts and ends at west.
