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Hicks Building Starlight Xpress Oculus All-Sky Camera

Auto-exposure techniques are used to take images of the sky above the Hicks Building every five minutes.

Exposure times start at 5, 10, 15, etc, minutes past the hour and range from 0.001 to 120 seconds based on the brightness of the sky around zenith during the night and from the periphery of the camera field during the day.

Please make sure this page is refreshed to get the latest image.

Click on the image to get a full resolution sized version.

For daytime/bright twilight/very cloudy nights, also see the Sheffield Solar All-Sky Colour Webcam which takes a quick snapshot every 30 seconds and is timestamped at the bottom of the image - the webcam changes to monochrome in low-light levels and is not sensitive enough to display stars: the Moon and bright planets can sometimes be seen if the sky is clear.

sxoc.png Image information:

If the sky is clear, exposure times will tend towards the 120 seconds maximum. Very cloudy skies will have short exposure times.
If the image is all white and the exposure time is sub-second, then the sky is too bright. Subsequent exposures should show more detail.
The Hicks Observatory dome can be seen upside down at the top of the image and the main part of the Hicks Building is seen to the upper right.
North is up, East is to the left. Zenith is in the centre of the image and the North Celestial Pole (NCP) is just below the Hicks Observatory dome.

Start of exposure timestamp: 2024-12-24 03:25:01 UTC
Exposure time: 11.9 seconds
Resolution: 1040x1392
Binning: 1x1

Image count statistics (range: 0 - 65535):
minimum: 1813
maximum: 57850
average: 14720
standard deviation: 8363
outer region maximum: 2916

100x100 pixel zenith region count statistics (range: 0 - 65535):
zenith region minimum: 9696
zenith region maximum: 13941
zenith region average: 11645
zenith region standard deviation: 771

sun altitude (degrees): -42.2006
day/twilight/night status: night
sunset: 15:51 UTC
civil twilight ends: 16:36 UTC
nautical twilight ends: 17:21 UTC
astronomical twilight ends/astronomical night starts: 18:03 UTC
astronomical twilight starts/astronomical night ends: 06:07 UTC
nautical twilight starts: 06:50 UTC
civil twilight starts: 07:34 UTC
sunrise: 08:20 UTC

Example Images

sxoc_thumb_milky_way_20k_120s_full__thumb.png clear sky with the Milky Way slightly visible
exposure: 120s, zenith region average: 20000
sxoc_clear_120s_20k_1__thumb.png clear sky
exposure: 120s, zenith region average: 20000
sxoc_clear_full_moon_48s_24k__thumb.png clear sky with the full moon
exposure: 60s, zenith region average: 24000
sxoc_thumb_10k_51s_partly_clear__thumb.png partially cloudy
exposure: 51s, zenith region average: 10000
sxoc_high_humidity_67s_23k__thumb.png very high humidity, mostly cloudy
exposure: 67s, zenith region average: 23000
sxoc_thumb_49sec_rain_then_clear_ast_twilight_20k__thumb.png rain then clearing sky
exposure: 49s, zenith region average: 20000
sxoc_thumb_24k_6s_cloudy_damp__thumb.png thick clouds and light rain
exposure: 6s, zenith region average: 24000
sxoc_thick_low_cloud_mist_22k_3s__thumb.png thick clouds
exposure: 3s, zenith region average: 22000
sxoc_snow_ice_26k_2pt4s__thumb.png snow and ice
exposure: 2.4s, zenith region average: 26000
sxoc_wasp_clear_ast_twi_18k_56s_2__thumb.png inquisitive wasp!
exposure: 56s, zenith region average: 18000 (within astronomical twilight)