Xbox Livecam Mod (Cliff)

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Here is what i capture tonight 21st July 2012 using registax

Some kind ring nebula/ galaxy thing

Zoomed

also again

This one below of Arcturus lovely star image looks like shooting star when stacked looks epic!.

Awesome that ring shaped thing what have i captured.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Could possibly been where was viewing was right below Alkaid and noticed they lot faint stuff to look at i was viewing somet could been M63, or M94 or most likely out focus star cor carolli star dont think was the star as that was more downer and me gazebo would been in way that.

what you rekon it is ? the ring thing.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

This is totally epic me whole night of stargazing mite aswell make most of it whilst uk weather lasts

Enjoy me stargazing vid with some epic trance tunes.

I wrote first few star names down Vega , then Arcturus, then Muphid and then Izar then i got lost with star names stellarium i'm only learner if i had one them fancey electronic moving mounts that tells ya name of stuff wish i had one them tripods anyone got any spare welcome to come round sometime.

can have stargazing party in my back garden.

http://youtu.be/C5BTvpL9nfw

[Aenima]

Hi Cliff,

Yeah, sorry. I totally took mine for granted, the goto mount, as I cant find anything now. Not even sure which constellation I'm looking at.

Was clear night in my area last night, nice change from gloom.

Regards

Aenima

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Hi Cliff,

Yeah, sorry. I totally took mine for granted, the goto mount, as I cant find anything now. Not even sure which constellation I'm looking at.

Was clear night in my area last night, nice change from gloom.

Regards

Aenima

Ah rite you get problems with them goto mounts they just point to anywhere if i had one them i would align it manual then connect it to software's.

i doing allright guess with me alt-azimuth mountin

going to try adding bit xbox cam built in zoom next time i view some stars as they looked like white dots some them or maybe add me 1.5 x adapter thing or maybe barlow lens and add some more exposure

i tell ya somet i cant wait till orion's in view i shall defo try with that horse head nebula

couple months yet before orion like.

next time it clear sky i'm going to look for them fuzzy's under that Akaid star and try see more them galaxy's mite be lucky mite pick up faint image

i shall try hunt whirlpool one

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Quick time lapse some stars other day on me unique created xbox sky cam

no ufo's lately

https://www.facebook...151110358312288

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Testing me cam picking up infrared light got me floppy disc filter over lens at moment with been daylight and damn clouds.

I allways use that little remote box to test me cams out.

[Aenima]

Ah rite you get problems with them goto mounts they just point to anywhere if i had one them i would align it manual then connect it to software's.

i doing allright guess with me alt-azimuth mountin

going to try adding bit xbox cam built in zoom next time i view some stars as they looked like white dots some them or maybe add me 1.5 x adapter thing or maybe barlow lens and add some more exposure

i tell ya somet i cant wait till orion's in view i shall defo try with that horse head nebula

couple months yet before orion like.

next time it clear sky i'm going to look for them fuzzy's under that Akaid star and try see more them galaxy's mite be lucky mite pick up faint image

i shall try hunt whirlpool one

Hi Cliff.

My goto is okay but now I got the 200p on EQ mount i'm pretty lost. Although on the clear night I found andromeda galaxy for 1st time, chuffed with that. Just have to wait till its risen high enough and the top of cassiopeia has a triangle arrow thing which points the right way, found it in my 50mm finder. Thats a damn good finder the view of pleiades was pretty in it.

But yeah, took avi of jupiter - not so relevent here as I tried my spc880 for that one - it needed testing anyway.

Can post a pic if ya like. I agree about Orion, I really miss it since it was the first constellation I aimed my scope at. A great target.

Regards

Jay

[Stargazing_Cliff]

I just relized all these star images i have took with the xbox cam the exposure setting was on normal they is all the exposure control to use yet i noticed with astrocapture by looking at lamp post then i clicked full controll over exposure and show list of loads of shut settings i noticed i have mine on first setting at top they is loads shutter settings to click on.

i clicked on one of the settings and wow the exposure from lamp post become very very bright this probably work with like faint stars/ them fuzzy's when lucky enuff to find them hmm i like this linux settings with xbox cam. seem lot more exposure than windows settings.

Will have to test when next clear sky.

Interesting why different operating systems some have more exposure control than others,

[Gina]

I've often found I get a lot more webcam settings with Linux than Windows.

[Aenima]

That's great, Cliff. I'm not sure but did you find them by clicking a small button which gives you like a set of three tabs in a row with general, picture and another tab i forget now, but it lets you untick a box says full automatic?

Jay

I have briefly seen that settings box -- think it was sharpcap but with SPC880/900nc cam plugged in. Maybe your cam got extra settings through linux bit like I had to put a better camera through windows to get em......

anyway, s'good news, see what you can do.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Will try them settings once clear sky anoying the brief gaps in clouds think i wait till full clear night

I know i tested on lamp post put setting to 1/33 and it kind make the lamp post was looking at super bright and then very very slow motion if knocked telescope little lost lamp post lol

what ever it does gives that slow motion effect.

and you see the exposure light zig zag across the screen cos of moving telescope.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

This a cool one

would hot pixel make trail ? look carefully at the star trail from when i stacked avi using registax 6

and then look at the red thing trailing interesting it's going other way from star.

think star was Alphekka

maybe hot pixel/ ufo or meteor who knows.

[DrRobin]

Hi Cliff,

That white doesn't look like a hot pixel, more like a reflection from either an optical surface or the side of one of the tubes. The red does look like a hot pixel as it is seen to stream away, presumable in the same direction before it was stacked.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Hi Cliff,

That white doesn't look like a hot pixel, more like a reflection from either an optical surface or the side of one of the tubes. The red does look like a hot pixel as it is seen to stream away, presumable in the same direction before it was stacked.

Probably the double glazing as was indoors last night when took that star

dunno when next clear night be to put all me stuff back outside again.

Added some star softwares to me old heavy tank laptop that i put outside help me name the stars when looking at thems and mini linux laptop thats for avi recordings.

Just have to wait till next clear night now.

at moment 6:44pm it's clouded out.

[stuffedhaggis]

Got my cam today cant wait to get it modified .

[Bryan196]

Just finished moding mine. When i was trying to make the hole wider for the eyepiece adapter, it cracked and some of it shattered off. Another case of my horrible DIY skills. I looked around the house for a solution and the only one i could find was duck tape. I was going to try it on some terrestrial objects, but of course it started heavily raining, ah well, better luck next time.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Nice one

Got my cam today cant wait to get it modified .

Just finished moding mine. When i was trying to make the hole wider for the eyepiece adapter, it cracked and some of it shattered off. Another case of my horrible DIY skills. I looked around the house for a solution and the only one i could find was duck tape. I was going to try it on some terrestrial objects, but of course it started heavily raining, ah well, better luck next time.

Nice one to new modded cam users hope you get some imaging

[Aenima]

Hi Cliff, also the rest on here, (its a big thread! )

Got to use my Xbox Cliff-Cam last night, recorded a few mins of avi. on Jupiter. Think I messed up the colour settings while fiddling with the sliders trying to get a good image. Sometimes it's pot luck getting the right balance of gain, exposure, contrast and all the rest, still experimenting with it.

Cliff your star trail looks like registax misaligned some frames that might have skipped around in the original avi. - I always get streaks or 'ghost' images (see below) when my avi has been jumpy or not centralised in castrator, leaving smears of jupiter behind the main image. I may be wrong but with reg6 its best to have your object still and central - you might need 'castrator' for planets, not sure bout other targets in the sky.

Anyways, I'll upload the image as it is so far, have just stacked it - no other work has been done, not sure what it needs but definitely colour isn't right.

Regards

Aenima

JUP Xbox 2 24.tif Xbox Jup.tif

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Hi Cliff, also the rest on here, (its a big thread! )

Got to use my Xbox Cliff-Cam last night, recorded a few mins of avi. on Jupiter. Think I messed up the colour settings while fiddling with the sliders trying to get a good image. Sometimes it's pot luck getting the right balance of gain, exposure, contrast and all the rest, still experimenting with it.

Cliff your star trail looks like registax misaligned some frames that might have skipped around in the original avi. - I always get streaks or 'ghost' images (see below) when my avi has been jumpy or not centralised in castrator, leaving smears of jupiter behind the main image. I may be wrong but with reg6 its best to have your object still and central - you might need 'castrator' for planets, not sure bout other targets in the sky.

Anyways, I'll upload the image as it is so far, have just stacked it - no other work has been done, not sure what it needs but definitely colour isn't right.

Regards

Aenima

JUP Xbox 2 24.tif Xbox Jup.tif

Cool nice one yep need to keep me scope stable least we learning registax how it processes avi's into nice image.

and thats pretty cool Jupiter.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

At moment with me xbox sky cam that use windows xp with not me linux telescope xbox cam

i time lapse records images in jpg i shud really record snap shots in raw from ccd

is they any software i could use for windows to record multiple time lapse snap shots in raw mode ?

so i get exact what ccd images that way

want some software that i can connect me xbox cam to and it mutiple take snap shots in raw mode like every ten - 20 seconds then i just make video avi from all the raw images.

not bothered what op system either windows or linux.

as i could allways add me skycam to a linux system.

i know this takes raw images with cam

http://www.coaa.co.uk/astrovideo.htm

but do i get this software to take snap shot like every 10-20 seconds

whats script to do this and it save the raw images

[Aenima]

Hey man,

Sorry Cliff, not really up to scratch with me tech skillz but there are other capture programs - found a v interesting one called FireCapture, it has settings of plenty, also some kind of pre-set capture modes built in. Like you load it and choose a planet from menu and it seems to give you roughly the right settings but haven't properly checked it, but I know you can un-check 'auto' and mess with settings.

But Sharpcap allows you to take snapshots when you 'Start Capture' with target onscreen, just let it go then press 'snapshot' button top-left next to capture. A look on the web could help.

Anyway, those two jupiter were on xbox so I put them up here. The one you can see without pressing it was to show how registax can give ghost trails - the other two are good examples of xbox cam and work in progress.

Trying again tonight.

Clear skies.

Aenima

[Aenima]

Just finished moding mine. When i was trying to make the hole wider for the eyepiece adapter, it cracked and some of it shattered off. Another case of my horrible DIY skills. I looked around the house for a solution and the only one i could find was duck tape. I was going to try it on some terrestrial objects, but of course it started heavily raining, ah well, better luck next time.

Good luck with the xbox cam.

It's a great little mod for starting out or for doing it without the expense, I was chuffed when I done mine as it was 1st mod of anything ever and went well to my surprise. You may find the image a little grainy with noise but if you get focus right and try for a minute or more avi. then registax should clean it up.

Anyway sorry, I didn't post this to tell you something you already know digressed a bit there, just wanted to say good luck and clearskies.

Regards

Aenima

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Cant wait till august for the Perseids what setting shud i put me xbox cam on frame rate to capture the trails of meteors if picks any up.

what would be best record avi few seconds at time. ?

[Cornelius Varley]

Cant wait till august for the Perseids what setting shud i put me xbox cam on frame rate to capture the trails of meteors if picks any up.

what would be best record avi few seconds at time. ?

Try HandyAvi http://www.azcendant.com/. The program has a function that will automatically start recording when a meteor is detected. The program has a 10 day trial period.

Peter