Hi all,

I've finally run my CloudDetector/Alarm software for long enough to be happy it works properly.

This uses the $145US IR thermometer from Extech to monitor the sky conditions, sounding an alarm if the configurable thresholds are passed.
It's a two-part application, so you can run the alarm app on a different PC to the one monitoring the sky conditions out at the scope.

This is useful if, like me, you don't have an automated observatory capable of closing itself. I can run the alarm app on a laptop in my bedroom to wake me if I need to go out and cover the scopes up.

The software is available for free download from my website as usual:

http://winfij.homeip.net/development/CloudDetector.html

If you give this a go, please do drop me a line to let me know how it works for you.

Cheers,

John



P.S. If you do have a fully automated observatory, Stan Ralph has used this same sensor to drive an ACP weather station plugin, which should close the obs automatically. It's in this same forum for download.