webcam for mac

[philjamesw]

Hi all, after reading a few posts about webcams I have decided to have a play around with webcams. Does anyone have any advice on which webcam to use in conjunction with a Skywatcher 127mm scope and a macbook?

[Chatham]

Just the very question I was going to ask one day! Do you want the mac to control the mount as well? There is a primer some where on here that I have read. I'll see if I can find it.

[philjamesw]

Frank,

Already managed to get the mount under control using a usb-serial converter and Stellarium; i thought that the next obvious trick would be to try a webcam, preferably one that 'just works'!!!

[Tribal-Wolf]

The Logitech Quickcam Pro 3000 might work, here is the driver download page

[Stephen]

The MACAM drivers support a lot of webcams under OSX

[Tribal-Wolf]

Incidentally I may have a Pro 3000 for sale soon.

[philjamesw]

So would any mac compatible ccd based webcam work or is there anything specific to look out for.

[Tribal-Wolf]

some ccd cams are better than others and they are very hard to comeby as most webcams have a cmos sensor not a ccd. Ccd is better in low light use. I think there is a list somewhere on here saying which cams you can use.

[4lefts]

fwiw, i never managed to get my spc900 working on os 10.6.xx or 10.5, though i could get it working on 10.4. tbh, much as i love my macbook, i wouldn't bother with a mac for astrophotography. there's just so much good stuff on windows that, when you're spending astro-imaging type money on scopes and mounts and cameras, the outlay for a cheap windows machine seems more plausible. just my 2yen.