spc880 webcams, how to work them?

[black hole sun]

Could somebody please explain how you capture images with these? somebody put on a link in the 'heads up' section that they are half price and was wondering what the procedure was to utilising one. Thanks from a novice.

[sgazer]

hi, these cameras are only good for bright objects like the moon or planets. Remove the lens from the camera and screw in a 1.25" nose piece adapter. Insert into your scope focuser with no eyepiece. Basically run whatever capture software you are using (which came with the camera or 3rd party software - search for "free video capture software", focus on the object, adjust the brightness/contrast so it's not too washed out and either capture a single frame or an .avi video file. Load the images or video into Registax (free), select the best images and stack them. Stacking many frames will enhance the detail. There are tutorials around on how to use Registax.

[TheThing]

Use Sharpcap as the capture software. It's free and developed by our own rwg. See the imaging section for a link.

[Revs]

^ Agreed, SharpCap is great and super easy to use

[starship trooper]

Camera can be modded to take long exposer shots of dso and there plenty of threads on how to do it.

[black hole sun]

Thats great, thank you all, i shall attempt it and do my homework. Cheers.

[black hole sun]

bought the philips spc880 webcam and had it flashed to spc900 specs so works with vista and at the same time time got the 1.25" webcam adapter both off morgan computers for £20 inc p+p! Well happy, thanks people.

[Nova]

did you grab an ir filter for it? not needed for lunar shots and monochrome but improves your colour planetary results by blocking the ir light and giving a more "natural" colour to your final image. Without an ir filter planet shots can have a kind of pastel colouration to them

[tony69]

sorry to hijack this thread,just been praticing focusing with a spc900 through a 150pl and all i got was a blue screen also tryed with by dslr same any help would be good ,i got all the adaptors useing sharpcap tryed for 1hr then gave up back to the reading books .