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[starbux]

FINALLY got my new laptop. I've already had the webcam, modified for imaging in my possession for a couple of months now. The webcam is a Phillips SPC 900NC (the latest incarnation of the TouCam), with the lens removed and a 1.25" adapter screwed in to the lens holder (I'm not mechanically talented, there are directions for this on the web and it's pretty easy even for me), and an near Infrared blocking filter mounted to it to both protect the CCD and improve the image sharpness.

A program called AmCap is used to capture the images rather than the native Vlounge software since AmCap allows export to uncompressed avi format since that is what is needed to run a stacking program such as Registax.

I did some test runs with the dobsonian and alt-az mounted ED80 (both undriven). The results weren't worth posting here, except to give me an idea of the settings. The other night I had the time and the energy to set up the 8" LX200, and with so-so seeing got a decent image of the Moon and Jupiter:


Altai Scarp, Theophilus, Cyrillus, Catharina.


Jupiter. This and the above moon pic were processed through Registax.


This is the same Jupiter, stacked but otherwise unprocessed. This is what the raw image appeared like, except for having less noise than the original.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Malcolm,

These are good. A little more tweaking, but I think there are good. I have read about using a webcam as an imager, and you have proved first hand that it works.

What you you say the magnification is of the Lunar and Jupiter shots?

Keep the imaging up and I anticipate your future efforts.

Thanks for sharing.

[starbux]

admin said:

Malcolm,

These are good. A little more tweaking, but I think there are good. I have read about using a webcam as an imager, and you have proved first hand that it works.

What you you say the magnification is of the Lunar and Jupiter shots?

Keep the imaging up and I anticipate your future efforts.

Thanks for sharing.

Good question about the magnification. I really don't know, but it's at least 150x. One thing is certain, using my 3x barlow on a 2000mm sct is waay too much power --- I need to get a good 2x barlow. Somewhere out there there must be an answer to the question.

I bought this webcam because it is very popular among astroimagers, even superior to immediately more expensive astro-dedicated units such as Celestron's NexImage, Meade's LPI, and Orion's solar-system imagers. The deep-sky imagers aren't very good for solar-system imaging. You really have to get up to $500 or more with SBIG and other astro-imaging dedicated companies before you get better performance over the Phillips webcam.

This setup, using the SCT (the videos for the moon and Jupiter are respectively 1min and 2mins). For imaging at these lengths a driven setup is essential. Setting up the SCT is a hassle to say the least, and kind of demands a combination of good weather and abundant energy on my part to carry it, set it up, and then take it all down when it's time to call it a night. Not as often as I'd like, but I'll make a special effort when Mars comes to opposition next winter.