Which webcam?????

[M4lcs67]

I have owned a telescope since May last year and am loving my new found hobby of astronomy. I have also recently bought a laptop and am currently considering having a dabble at imaging with a webcam.

So it is a case of which webcam????

I do know enough to know that the Philips one is one of the best, but they are like rocking horse droppings, so are there any others out there worth considering? Orion and Celestron do them, but I don't know if they are any good.

I don't have a huge amount to spend and being a complete novice I wouldn't go crazy at this stage anyway.

Thanks for your comments/opinions.

[wolfytom]

I've just bought an xbox webcam for 3.95 from the bay. It needs a little modification but the pictures others are putting on the xbox thread in diy astronomy, look pretty good.

At that price it has to be worth a go!

Good luck.

[bm1980]

Not sure on the orion but the celestron neximage has the same chip as the philips spc880

Regards

Ben

[M4lcs67]

Thanks for the Heads up fellas. Ben did you take that pic of Mars through your 127 SLT? I would love to turn out pics like that.

[yuklop]

Have a look at this thread. Coves the same topic. I have a Microsoft Lifecam Studio which can be fairly easily modded. Its pretty good. Can't do anything deep sky with it as there is limited exposure control. I think the philips can be modded for long exposures. But then again DSLRs are the way to go for deep sky. Or dedicated Astro CCDs. But they are expensive.