All-Sky Camera Inaugurated in Our Nature Park

Friday 22 September 2023 saw the inauguration of the first "all-sky camera" in Our Nature Park in northern Luxembourg.

This new camera has been installed on a water tank near "Wäisse Wak" in the municipality of Putscheid to capture the night sky and help deepen one's understanding of the universe through innovative technology. The inauguration took place in the presence of Luxembourg's Minister for Energy and Spatial Planning, Claude Turmes.

In addition to the usual weather observation, the camera also provides bright, high-resolution images of the entire night sky above the nature park. Constellations, the outline of the Milky Way and planets can be recognised when the sky is clear. Temporary phenomena such as satellites and meteors can be spotted in the images as well.

Our Nature Park noted that data from the new all-sky camera will be appreciated not only by scientists and astronomers, but also by schools, planetariums and amateur astronomers, who will be able to take advantage of this technology to explore and discover the night sky.

Normally, the camera triggers at an interval of five minutes. But if the night is clear and moonless, it works at a rapid pace of a few minutes. Nevertheless, the system is still only a prototype and a lot of development work is still underway. Our Nature Park added that it is working to make the data available to the interested public in the short term.

The project is financed equally by Luxembourg's Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development and Our Nature Park.