indi-allsky on a Raspberry Pi system regularly writes data (logs, databases, images, videos).
microSD cards are only designed for this to a limited extent and can fail without warning in the worst case.
A 1:1 backup of the entire SD card is possible in an emergency:
An all-sky system must be able to switch perfectly between day, twilight, night and back again. There is also a special case that is often underestimated – the moon. Particularly bright phases of the moon can quickly push cameras to their dynamic limits and lead to overexposed areas of the sky or incorrectly set exposure times. This article explains how to configure indi-allsky so that transitions are smooth and the moon mode is only activated when it is really needed.
The ZWO ASI678MC is one of the most powerful all-sky cameras for day and night operation. Its back-illuminated Sony IMX678 sensor offers high sensitivity, low readout noise and full RAW16 support. This means that both high-contrast daytime shots and brilliant night-time shots are possible – provided that indi-allsky is configured correctly.
This article describes a tried-and-tested configuration for optimum image quality by day and night. The values are adjusted to:
The aim is a setup that delivers stable, high-quality results all year round without manual intervention.
The right choice of Bayer pattern is crucial for correct colors, clean day images and error-free night image processing. Like almost all modern ZWO color sensors with Sony Starvis II technology, the ASI678MC uses an RGGB pattern. If this is set incorrectly or automatically recognized incorrectly, typical artefacts occur.
Below are the most important findings from the practical tests and the indi-allsky documentation.
After several nightly failures of my Allsky camera under indi-allsky, it turned out that my ZWO ASI678MC camera switches to 8-bit at night and the Image Worker crashes. To prevent this, I had to set the recording format manually.
The following entry ensures that the camera remains reliably in RAW16 mode and no longer switches to 8-bit:
{
"PROPERTIES": {},
"SWITCHES": {
"CCD_VIDEO_FORMAT": {
"on": ["ASI_IMG_RAW16"],
"off": ["ASI_IMG_RAW8"]
}
}
}
Since this adjustment, the system has been stable and there are no more nightly outages.