what quality from a phillips spc900

[ultramol]

Hi wonder if anyone can help me. This is my second attempt to photograph Jupiter. It is better than my first and was quickly done as the clouds rolled in. But my question is this, what is the best detail I am likely to get using this phillips webcam. I understand it must have it's limitations but if I set my scope up perfectly what am I likely to get ? I also understand about the conditions during the session, but average night, average seeing what do you think I could really expect to get . I have a skywatcher 200p on an EQ5 mount with dual motors, astroeq box of tricks and I can get jupiter on the screen in sharpcap and it barely moves so tracking is no problem. I am just wondering if I need to buy a better camera ?

[tingting44]

the SPC900 is a fine camera sir! when conditions played ball for me this is what i managed to get with it

Jupiter - 06/02/13 - 9:45pm by tingting44, on Flickr

 

Jupiter - 06/02/13 - 9:11pm by tingting44, on Flickr

 

keep at it mate and it will pay off, your get there mate, when your over the moon with your pic

[jimbo747]

The ps3 eyecam is an excellent alternative. £5, and will do 75FPS uncompressed @ 640x480, or 187fps @ 320x240 - so you can take a good minutes worth with a load of frames and not have rotation to deal with. Compared to my logitech 4000 which has the same sony sensor as the philips cameras it seems to capture colour much better when barlowed up.

I've modded a few but even in its basic form its the best value for money camera you can buy.

[lensman57]

Hi wonder if anyone can help me. This is my second attempt to photograph Jupiter. It is better than my first and was quickly done as the clouds rolled in. But my question is this, what is the best detail I am likely to get using this phillips webcam. I understand it must have it's limitations but if I set my scope up perfectly what am I likely to get ? I also understand about the conditions during the session, but average night, average seeing what do you think I could really expect to get . I have a skywatcher 200p on an EQ5 mount with dual motors, astroeq box of tricks and I can get jupiter on the screen in sharpcap and it barely moves so tracking is no problem. I am just wondering if I need to buy a better camera ?

Nothing wrong with the camera or the image. Planetary imaging relies a hell of a lot on the atmosphere and seeing. If they are not good then forget about imaging and at the moment for the north of England the conditions are lousy to say the least. Wait for a period of good seeing and make sure that your scope is well collimated. A couple of a nights ago I tried for Jupiter with a Celestron 9.25 XLT and ASI 120 Mono. I just couldn't get any detail from the beast, I just junked the data.

A.G

[ArmyAirForce]

I have a 200PDS and had an SPC900, but didn't rate it very highly. The colour sensitivity was good and I captured Uranus and Neptune with it, but it has a really slow frame rate ( 10fps ) and I wasn't very successful at capturing detail with it. I kept it for 6 months before selling it on and buying a ZWO ASI120MM. The picture below shows the development of my Jupiter images with four cameras; a Trust 380 Spacecam, the SPC900 and the ASI120 Colour and Mono cameras. Obviously the ASI is significantly more money, but for me, it was money well spent.

The SPC Jupiter is recognisable, but both my Jupiter and Saturn images left me a little underwhelmed compared to the images I've achieved with the ASI120MM.
 

 
SPC900 webcam and x2 Barlow