Webcam SPC

[jasperuk]

Morn

As i already have a Canon Ti2 (550D) is there any point in me buying a webcam such as the Phillips SPC900 (or other models i dont know which is best).

What would a webcam give me the camera cannot ????

[nightfisher]

An spc 900 would give you lots more magnification when imaging the moon, and webcams are ideal for planet imaging where as dslr`s are not so good

[jasperuk]

Are they only for shall we say local objects then nothing deep space ?

[nightfisher]

if un modded then just solar system, but they can be lx modded for deep sky, but at a guess the dslr might be better for deep sky, though i am happy to be corrected if wrong

[JamesF]

There are a lot of good moon images done with DSLRs, though a webcam is good for that as well. Where webcams really come into their own however is planetary imaging where it's necessary to stack large numbers of images to obtain the final result. It's very easy to capture a run of several thousand images over a few minutes from a webcam. I don't know how feasible that is with a DSLR.

James

[Stargazer Jack]

However, these webcams are very hard to get unless you pay quite a bit of money.

[jasperuk]

No feasable really unless i want to break the mirror, dont think i have mirror lock not sure, how do you do it with a web cam, does it just keep saving images one after another from the video stream of the webcam ????

[Cornelius Varley]

A webcam captures a video (avi) which is the processed in Registax or Aavistack. The software stacks the individual frames to improve the signal to noise ratio. The resulting image can be tweaked further in the stacking program to produce an image which is far better than a single frame capture.

Peter

[JamesF]

how do you do it with a web cam, does it just keep saving images one after another from the video stream of the webcam ????

Basically, yes. There are a number of programs that will capture a sequence of frames as an avi and they can be processed afterwards.

The Microsoft Lifecam Cinema/Studio is probably the best alternative to the SPC at the moment, though by the time you've modded it I don't think there's much difference in price to £50-ish that the SPC cameras appear to be fetching.

James

[jasperuk]

I am watching a few Philips SPC's on ebay what sort fo price would they be expected to get too ?

If you get a vibration part way through taking the AVI can you just dump those frames of will the software do ti for you ???

[SeedyF]

Jasper - when you look at a video of a planet in its raw AVI format the image jumps about all over the place so a little vibration won't do any harm. Any movement of the subject of the image is ironed out when you process the video in Registax. The fist thing you do is find a good quality frame, select the object then tell the programme to align the rest of the frames to the selected object. Registax lets you discard all the rubbish frames where the atmosphere blurred the object and stacks all the good ones to extract the maximum amount of detail from all of the frames.

When you compare the original video with the stacked image the transformation is remarkable.

Two years ago I spent £10 on a philips SPC880 and modified it to SPC900 spec and a further £15 I think on an eyepiece adapter from Morgan Computers. They currently want £40 for the lot, ready to plug into your laptop and focus tube - which seems reasonable. But they are out of stock

[JamesF]

I've heard that the ones on ebay recently have gone for £50+

James

[Redpaul]

If you want to try your hand at just lunar imaging to start while you wait for the Philips to come back in stock there are plenty of cheaper alternatives. I read that the Trust WB-5400 was half decent even for a cmos chip. It takes the same adapter as the Philips so you can find them for under a tenner. I saw two Trust cams on ebay and bid on them both and ended up winning both. One for 99p and the other for £2.99. This was taken with the 99p one as it arrived first.

Clavius by Paul S Wharton, on Flickr

Paul