The previous east-flavored composite (tight-crop east region + lunar
texture overlay) was honest but visually limited: 38-px source moon, no
real terminator shadows on quarters, and a faint upscaled-halo
background that was less compelling than just a clean lunar render.
New flow:
- East stays the witness (verifies the moon was visible during the
collection window) and supplies the timestamp.
- moon_dialamoon.py fetches the NASA SVS Dial-a-Moon render for that
exact UTC hour. Free, public-domain, real-physics: correct phase,
libration, and crater shadows for any timestamp.
- moon_composite.render_phase_closeup() places that render at ~92% of
frame height on a 1920x1080 black background -- the long-telephoto
look the user asked for.
- One API call per phase event (~36/year), cached forever in
moon-ref/dialamoon/.
Quarter moons now show real 3D crater shadows along the terminator,
which the prior algorithmic phase-shadow couldn't simulate from a
full-moon reference.
Adds MOON_REQUIRE_EAST_VERIFY=true|false toggle so the user can choose
"only post when east saw it" (default, current behavior) vs "post every
cycle regardless of weather over east."
Drops the install-time lunar reference download (no longer needed) and
the now-unused per-phase phase-shadow path stays in moon_composite.py
for reference / future reuse.
https://claude.ai/code/session_015PBVDESC3KLMbq1LpA6qLn
Two new jobs operate on the SUNRISE_CAM, sharing three Python helpers
(moon_phase, moon_detect, moon_composite) and one cached lunar texture:
- moon-track.sh: nightly batch detects the moon in each east frame,
crops a 480x480 box around it, stitches into an mp4 that holds the
moon roughly centred while clouds and stars drift past.
- moon-phase-monthly.sh: daily check that runs whichever phase composite
is due that day. Handles full moon (posts D+3), first quarter (D+2,
best-effort due to daytime-only geometry from east), and third quarter
(D+2). Picks the frame closest in time to the exact phase moment that
meets quality / altitude / illumination thresholds, then composites
the cached lunar texture into it -- sky/halo/parallactic-angle/timing
real from east, surface detail borrowed from the reference image.
Honest-by-design: a 38-px white blob from a wide-field IP camera cannot
be enhanced into crater detail by software. The composite makes the
borrowing explicit and constrains everything else (when, where, sky,
orientation) to match what east actually saw.
install.sh now downloads the skyfield ephemeris (de421.bsp) and the
default lunar reference (Wikipedia CC BY-SA full-moon photo) on first
run. Both can be overridden via .env.
https://claude.ai/code/session_015PBVDESC3KLMbq1LpA6qLn
Covers: installing git, first clone, pulling updates, stash vs reset
--hard, checking diffs, switching branches, and a note that .env is
never touched by git pulls.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
- verify-mvt.sh: remove dead first _info= line (used MVT_START before
defined); fix JPEG size loop to accumulate bytes correctly and display
human-readable total; show size in delete confirmation
- montage-mvt.sh: grep -c uses || echo 0 instead of || true to be
unambiguous about the no-match value under set -e
- capture.sh, capture-watchdog.sh: require camera name arg, remove
silent SUNRISE_CAM fallback
- migrate-seasons.sh: require --cam arg, error if missing
- README.md, sky-cam.conf: remove stale fullday-video.sh references;
README pipeline diagram updated to show verify-mvt.sh
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
No script defaults to SUNRISE_CAM (east) for the seasons pipeline.
Every direction is treated equally — camera name is a required arg,
not an optional override.
- 4-seasons.sh: $1 required, exits with usage if missing
- montage-mvt.sh: arg order changed to <cam> [date]; $1 required
- year-end-join.sh: $2 (cam) required
- verify-mvt.sh: $4 (cam) required
- migrate-seasons.sh: example commands updated to new arg order
- README.md: montage-mvt.sh examples updated
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
capture-watchdog.sh: long-running script that checks the newest JPEG mtime
in each camera's output directory every CAPTURE_STALE_SECS/3 seconds (min 5s).
Sends a stall notification via notify.sh if no new frame has arrived within
CAPTURE_STALE_SECS. Sends a recovery notification once new frames resume.
Only alerts if the camera was previously working (avoids false positives on
first start or overnight before the first frame of the day).
sky-cam.conf: CAPTURE_STALE_SECS=30 added next to CAPTURE_INTERVAL with a
note that it should be at least 2x the interval.
install.sh: generates sky-cam-watchdog-<cam>.service for every camera that
has a RTSP URL configured. The watchdog service starts after and alongside
the capture service, restarts on failure, and is enabled/started with the
same loop as the capture service.
README.md: note about watchdog and journalctl command for its logs.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
montage-mvt.sh, year-end-join.sh: CAM_NAME fallback referenced undefined
\$CAM_NAME — crashes under set -euo pipefail on manual runs without args.
Fixed to fall back to \$SUNRISE_CAM (same fix applied earlier to other scripts).
notify.sh: Mattermost notification guard only checked MM_NOTIFY_CHANNEL_ID,
not mattermost_url or access_token. If those are unset, curl would send a
malformed request silently. Added guards for all three required values.
install.sh: seasons/fullday service units had literal \n in After=/Wants=
lines because bash does not interpret \n in heredoc variable expansions.
Changed to \$'...' syntax so actual newlines are written, making valid
systemd unit files. Also: audio capture timer now uses \$SCHEDULE_SUNRISE
instead of hardcoded 03:00, keeping it in sync if the user changes the
schedule.
sunrise-audio-capture.sh: record_start_sec could theoretically go negative
(sunrise very early + large SUNRISE_TARGET_SECS). Added floor-at-zero guard.
daily_sunrise_video.sh: added comment explaining why audio_offset is always 0.
README.md: fix CAM_RTSP_sunrise example to CAM_RTSP_east.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
Cameras are now named by direction (east, north, south, west) throughout
config defaults, examples, and documentation. The config key SUNRISE_CAM
is unchanged — it still means 'which camera faces east and gets the sunrise
job'. Only the camera instance name value changes from 'sunrise' to 'east'.
sky-cam.conf: CAMERAS=(east), SUNRISE_CAM=east, SCHEDULE_*_east,
example comments updated to show all four compass points.
README.md: all command examples updated (4-seasons.sh east, journalctl
sky-cam-capture-east, etc.) — phenomenon references ('sunrise window',
'sunrise time') left unchanged.
bootstrap.sh: example updated to show compass directions.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
- Step 1 is now dependency installation (apt + pip3) before anything else
- SCRIPT_DIR removed from config table (auto-detected)
- RTSP/Mattermost credentials moved to .env section (step 4)
- install.sh now shown as generating .env.example before credentials are filled in
- Schedule settings explained: SEASONS/FULLDAY process yesterday; SUNRISE waits internally
- How it works: audio capture described as SUNRISE_TARGET_SECS centred on sunrise
- daily_sunrise_video.sh pipeline updated: steps 3a/3b shown separately
- Resilience section replaced with four-tier audio/overlay matrix table
- Camera audio section updated: exact duration, centred split, odd-second rule
- Manual operations: examples use explicit camera name argument
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
daily_sunrise_video.sh: use \$MOVIES_DIR instead of \$BASE_DIR/movies so the
override in sky-cam.conf is respected when videos live on a separate drive.
capture.sh: default camera name falls back to \$SUNRISE_CAM (not the
undefined \$CAM_NAME) when no argument is passed.
sunrise2mm.py: also loads .env after sky-cam.conf so Mattermost credentials
moved to .env are actually visible to the upload script.
sunrise.py: raise a clear error message when LATITUDE/LONGITUDE/TIMEZONE
are missing from sky-cam.conf instead of an opaque KeyError.
4-seasons.sh, montage-mvt.sh: capture season_info.py output before eval so
a Python failure exits cleanly with a diagnostic message rather than
silently continuing with undefined variables.
bootstrap.sh: add system package install step (ffmpeg bc fonts-dejavu) and
show the .env setup step after install.sh generates .env.example.
README.md: correct Python package names and add fonts-dejavu dependency.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
daily_sunrise_video.sh: derive CAM_NAME from $1 (defaulting to SUNRISE_CAM)
instead of an undefined variable; this was causing empty image/output paths.
install.sh: pass $SUNRISE_CAM as argument to daily_sunrise_video.sh so it
matches the pattern used by every other per-camera script.
sunrise2mm.py: use SUNRISE_CAM config key (not the undefined CAM_NAME) to
locate the output directory; fixes silent path mismatch on non-default names.
4-seasons.sh: remove stray `set -x` that was flooding systemd logs with
shell trace output.
README.md: correct Python dependencies from `ephem` to `suntime pytz` to
match what sunrise.py actually imports.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ
Removes dependency on MotionEye or any NVR software. Everything is now
CLI/ffmpeg configured entirely from sky-cam.conf.
capture.sh
Long-running systemd service (one per camera) that pulls frames from the
camera's RTSP stream at CAPTURE_INTERVAL seconds, writing HH-MM-SS.jpg
into BASE_DIR/<cam>/YYYY-MM-DD/. Restarts at midnight for the new date
directory; auto-reconnects on camera disconnect.
sunrise-audio-capture.sh
One-shot service triggered at 03:00. Waits until (sunrise minus
SUNRISE_PRE_MIN minus AUDIO_PRE_BUFFER_MIN), then records the RTSP audio
stream for the full sunrise window. Output deleted after mixing.
daily_sunrise_video.sh
Step 3 now mixes in sunrise-audio.m4a when AUDIO_ENABLED=true and the
file exists. Audio is centred on actual sunrise time at natural speed
while the video plays as the sped-up timelapse. Uses filter_complex
when audio is present (can't combine -vf with -filter_complex).
install.sh
Generates sky-cam-capture-<cam>.service for each camera with CAM_RTSP_<cam>
set, and sky-cam-audio-capture.{service,timer} when AUDIO_ENABLED=true.
sky-cam.conf
New settings: CAM_RTSP_<cam>, CAPTURE_INTERVAL, AUDIO_ENABLED,
AUDIO_PRE_BUFFER_MIN, CAPTURE_AUDIO_BITRATE.
https://claude.ai/code/session_01C4jbd3waXG3eKZYbGUjLUQ