Monday, February 15, 2010

Astrovid Fireball Camera Arrives

My Astrovid Fireball Camera has arrived. Of course I couldn’t wait to pull it apart and take a look at the components inside. I was happy to see that it is solidly built and well constructed. Attention to details like cable placement with appropriate cable ties make for a professional product. The supplied documentation was also good.

The Astrovid Fireball Camera is weather proof and the housing is heated and cooled. If you look at the pictures you can see a small fan used for cooling and some kind of thermal pad to heat the front, presumably to keep of the dew in winter. Note that although the unit has a fan, there are no holes in the housing so it is 100% water proof. That’s a good thing as this camera will be mounted on the roof of my house and will be exposed to all of the harsh weather conditions in Melbourne.

Inside the housing sits a Watec WAT-902H Ultimate CCD camera with a Tamron lens with auto-iris mounted to it. The Tamron lens is 3 – 8mm range with 1:1.0 aperture. The auto-iris will automatically adjust to the lighting conditions.

For more details on the Astrovid Fireball Camera see http://www.astrovid.com/prod_details.php?pid=3489&querystr=fireball

My new Astrovid Fireball Camera fits in my hand. Nice and compact design.


The main clear flat window is covered by another
dome shaped clear window to allow water to run off it.


Left front view of the inner assembly. The inner assembly slides out easily and is held in by one screw. When you re-insert the inner assembly, a rubber o-ring inside the outer assembly fits neatly into the metal groove that can be seen at the back. This ensures that the unit is water proof once again after re-assembly.


Right side view. Note the Watec WAT-902H Ultimate camera.


Close up of the cooling fan at the back of the inner assembly.


Close up of the Tamron camera and inner heating pad at the front of the inner assembly.




No comments:

Post a Comment