We have recently installed an IP camera inside the KELT-South building. This allows us to see the telescope during observing operations (although it's usually too dark to see anything) and monitor the telescope if anything should go wrong.

The camera is an ACTi ACM-5611 IP camera. Originally the camera included a lens in the packaging, but this lens would only allow focus points of 50m and further. We needed the focus point to be at about 1m. For this reason we purchased a CCTV F1.4 3.5-8.0mm lens, that included an iris mechnism that would only open when DC power was applied. Unfortunately the IP camera does not have a socket available for this type of lens to be plugged in. With a little help from the SAAO electronics department in Cape Town, the iris was removed from the lens and is now attached to the front of the IP camera. The result is that we now have a fully functional monitoring system.

ONLY WORKS WITH IE6 or later

The IP camera can be accessed by going to the URL: http://keltsouthcam.saao.ac.za

Username: Guest

Password: Guest

The images below show the pictures from the IP camera a few hours after installation.

This image shows the interior of the KELT-South building with very low illumination lights (in very low light conditions the IP camera automatically switched to black and white to give better contrast).

With more light the colours start to appear :)