Click for the current   web cam picture:

Mt Williamson   web cam:

The Whitney Web Cam is housed at the Museum of Western Film History, 701 South Main Street, Lone Pine, CA. 

If you have the time, visit the museum.  You will be amazed at the collection of items on display from the hundreds of movies made around Lone Pine over the years.  The camera is located on the tower above the museum.

The camera is an Olympus SP500 UltraZoom and is driven by SebecTec software running on a Windows computer.

We chose this camera based on its zoom ability, picture quality and cost.  Since our target is 12.9 miles away, we needed significant magnification.  None of the commercial webcams have the ability to zoom in as well or produce a picture of this quality.

The other point about this camera is that it can be operated remotely by computer software.  There are only a few camera models around that can be driven from a computer, specifically the Olympus UltraZoom models from the C-740 through the SP-500.  Olympus has discontinued the computer-driven capability, except in some very high-end models.

The current camera was installed in June, 2010. You can read more about its installation and location here: Web Cam Plans

About the picture

The camera takes a picture every 5 minutes, and the software uploads 4 copies of the picture to the WhitneyZone web site:

Credits

The Museum of Western Film History in Lone Pine, CA, for providing the location with the power and internet connection.  Read some museum reviews.

Michael McCormack, provider of the SebecTec software.  Mike worked with us closely to help us set up the system, and also to make adjustments to the software to better accommodate our setup.

Dayle Dalrymple and Wayne Pyle for work on the photo above.  They identified and labeled the locations in the picture.

Participants from the WhitneyZone message board: Gary and Pam S, and Dave W for helping with the physical installation.

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