New Sky360 Project in Development ! Find Us on Discord 02/05/2023

LATEST NEWS 02/05/2023

Join our international Sky360 open source project to observe the skies for UAPs and contribute to citizen science!

We are excited to announce our open source sky observation project, Sky360, and we're looking for supporters / developers who are passionate about space and citizen science to join our team. Our vision is to facilitate a global citizen science project to observe the skies and all their phenomena around the clock, while providing high-quality results and analysis available to everyone.

We want to provide a community platform, tools, and support to all people interested in observing the skies for stars, meteors, satellites, planes, drones, weather phenomena, birds, UAPs, or anything else that happens in our atmosphere and low Earth orbit. Our Discord channel, the UAP Tracking Forum community now has over 1,600 members.

Together with and for the community, we are developing affordable hardware and software for a 24/7 citizen sky observatory that can detect, track, identify, and analyze any aerial phenomena. Our software will cover various functionalities, including a core part with image processing, a neural network with a machine learning-based identifier and prioritizer, and a messaging system for all connected sensors. For connected sensors, we first focus on the PTF for guiding, vector-ahead tracking, and production of high-resolution video data.

We are also developing an AI cloud service that can aggregate event data from all active stations and analyze it with additional external data, such as air traffic and weather. The first version of our open source Sky360 software is scheduled for release in 2023.

For our Sky360 citizen science project, we have set five preconditions, including open source hardware and software development, open source data generation, and affordable, harmonized hardware for DIY. We welcome developers of all levels of experience who are interested in contributing to our project and helping us achieve our vision.

If you're interested in contributing to our project, please leave a comment or send us a message. We look forward to hearing from you and building something great together!

Discord invite https://discord.com/invite/GHHq7eXNFZ

Github https://github.com/Sky360-Repository

Explainer video Sky360 explainer

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Paul

Supplies

https://skyhub.org/hardware.html

Step 1: Sky Hub UAP Tracker Build No Longer Active - Archived

Welcome To Sky Hub UAP Tracker

Sky Hub Introduction video

How to get involved

Sky Hub is an open source observational science platform to track Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. This documentation is a practical guide on joining this citizen science project 🌎

It will show you how you can get involved:

Build and operate your own Sky Hub UAP Tracker
Join in on the software development
Contribute to the science that underpins Sky Hub
Support Sky Hub through PayPal donation or Patreon

Head over to the live chat if you have a question

If you're looking for background, a good place to start would be the Sky Hub website

or our Medium publication

Step 2: How to Get Involved No Longer Active - Archived

How to get involved

Sky Hub is an all-volunteer citizen science effort. This is a complex project and there are many things the project could use your help with. Below is a living list of current needs, if you feel up to the task, join us in the Sky Hub chat and let us know where you'd like to help!

Developers Developers link

If you want to be a part of something historic, come join our software development 🚧 team and see what you can do for UAP Science. We're primarily using go lang and vue.js.

Here's some of the tasks we need help with currently:

Help building an installer
Adding unit tests for tracker and tracker-ui
Assisting with user documentation for the tracker/ui
Troubleshooting documentation

We've created a developer setup guide to get you started. Jump into the chat Development Channel if you have any questions.

Language Support Language Support Link

This is a global project so we'd like to support multiple languages on our Wiki 📖 Are you fluent in a language that you could help us add to this Wiki? For example:

Spanish
Portuguese
Chinese
Russian
German
French
Italian

Science Science Link

Perhaps you have a Science background 🔬 and would like to contribute to discussions on the science that underpins Sky Hub? Check out our mission statement. A particular focus for the team at the moment is aspects of Sensor Design, Choice, and Protection.

Financial Help Financial Help Link

Since Sky Hub is open source and volunteer based, monetary donations go a long way towards the cost and upkeep for the cloud network. If you'd like to back the project and help it succeed, consider making a contribution using either Patreon or Paypal.

Branding / Social Media Branding / Social Media Link

Sky Hub is currently seeking a branding/social media expert who can help create the Sky Hub public presence and brand as well as guide engagement with the various communities. The perfect team member is someone who has expertise with:

Creating a brand
Managing social media presence
Engaging various communities and following social media trends
Ability to define and measure social media KPI's
Familiarity with web design principals and publishing
Search Engine Optimization and page ranking

Fabrication/Manufacture Fabrication/Manufacturing Link

Sky Hub trackers require a number of parts for the official design assembly and the best deployments will have a weatherproof enclosure to keep the various equipment safe from the elements while we watch our skies. Sky Hub is in need of volunteers with access to/skills in manufacturing and 3D printing to help create enclosure parts to reduce barriers to contributors who might not have the skillset and tooling to build.

Sky Hub could use help from makers who:
Have access to/own laser cutters capable of precision cuts (8mm plastic sheet for enclosure walls) and are willing to produce parts for others
Have a 3D printer/printer farm and are willing to produce 3D printed parts for others to assemble trackers
Injection molding capability that is priceable for the end-user/team to replace FDM 3D printing

Step 3: Getting Started - No Longer Active - Archived

In this section we guide you in building 🛠 and registering your own Sky Hub UAP Tracker. This is a system diagram of the base level tracker you will be building:

What you need

The total cost of a Sky Hub Tracker varies depending on choice of camera, microcomputer and shipping cost for parts. A base level tracker will cost about $700.

Which Jetson Microcomputer? Which Jetson Micro Computer ? Link

There are 3 models of NVidia Jetson Microcomputer that we currently support. Select one of the following options tabs:

Option 1 - Nano

Option 2 - Xavier NX

Option 3 - Xavier AGX

This base level ✅ option is sufficient for processing high resolution video data from a single fisheye camera. There are two models: 2GB and 4GB. You will need the 4GB developer kit model.

The Nano does not come with a fan so you will need a 5v 4 pin PWM fan 40x40x20 mm to keep the device cool . We recommend this Noctua fan which you can purchase from i.e. Amazon.

Note that there are several versions of the Noctua fan.You should purchase the 5v 4 pin PWM version, not the 12v version.

The Nano will need a a micro SD card to store the Sky Hub software and the operating system. We recommend a Samsung PRO 64GB SDXC endurance.

Also, USB3 storage device which is needed for storing video recorded by the Tracker, database, sensor data, etc. A minimum of 250GB is recommended e.g. such as this. You will need a SATA to USB3 adaptor

Essential parts Essential Parts Link

The following parts are required for every Sky Hub Tracker. The GPS 📡 can be purchased from Adafruit.

Item Description

Fisheye Camera A fisheye camera provides an expansive view of the sky. It should be IP based, support the RTSP protocol, and H265 standard. We recommend a Dahua 12 MP.

GPS unit The Adafruit Ultimate GPS (buy the USB version as linked, not breakboard version) provides accurate time and location data. We recommend purchasing the Antenna, uFL Adaptor, and you will need a USB A to Micro USB-B connector.

Ethernet switch The switch will be for connecting the hardware on the same network. We recommend a 5v or 12v Gigabit switch with at least 5 ports e.g. Netgear 5-port

ATX PSU The PSU 🔌 provides a flexible and stable source of power for all the above and future items.

We recommend at least 300W e.g. Apevia Raptor

You will also need a STSP Toggle Switch and some 2.1mm x 5.5mm screw terminal male barrel jack connectors from e.g. from Jameco or eBay. You will need some ethernet cables. We added some of these items to an Amazon list.

Overall summary of what you need see image.