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Which webcam help

laaj19

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laaj19

laaj19

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Hello all

I have had my scope for about a month now and I'm really enjoying looking at the moon and a few planets. I have a laptop so I think the next step for me would be to set up a web cam. But how :(:icon_scratch:

I have been reading about mods of webcams but is there not one off the shelf would seem there a market for it if not.

I have a sw 200pds with eq5 mount not got goto or a drive system (I know it's not called that but I cant think of name)

Any help would be great thanks

Also how do I set it up on scope what about software for laptop

:(

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malc-c

malc-c

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Basically there are two web cams used with telescopes, the Phillips SPC880 (flashed to 900) and the MS Lifecam Cinema. There is currently a shortage of the SPC and prices on e-bay have been reaching over £100, which is silly as they could originally be picked up from Morgan Computers for less than £30 including filters and flashing.

Modding a camera can be as simple as removing the lens and screwing in a 1.25" nose cone that fits the focuser, up to using additional components to change the shutter speeds and turn of the processing amplifier... which if you are not confident with electronics can be performed by a commercial company (Astronomiser - Automated Astronomy and AstroImaging Solutions)

Software: - WXAstrocapture and Sharpcap tend to be the capture packages used. Registax is ideal for post processing the video.

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malc-c

malc-c

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What sort of things can an undriven/non-GOTO scope + webcam capture?

Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, sun (with filters). If the webcam has the LX mod then brighter DSO's

Does registax handle the lining up of the individual frames thus eliminating the problem of no tracking system?

yes

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Tribal-Wolf

Tribal-Wolf

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I took a pic of Mars the other night with a phillips cam but the seeing wasn't the best, you can get a lot better on the right night.

The xbox cam is supposed to be ok although I have heard conflicting views (excuse the pun), some say it has too much noise. Mind you I think it depends on the person using it a lot of the time.

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The Sailor

The Sailor

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Instead of looking at cam mods an such why not spend a couple of quid on a cheapie webcam, take out the lens and put an adapter in, get used to using it and see what you can achieve and then thing about spending money. The adapter can be reused and you have the webcam for other uses. Hope that is of use ;).

Jim

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Tribal-Wolf

Tribal-Wolf

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Some cheapie webcams will put you off ever trying again. For large bright objects like the Moon the you will get away with a cmos sensor webcam but for planetary you will get better results with ccd most of the time and there are very little help on modding all but the known makes of cams. At the price of an xbox 360 cam it has to be worth a try at least and they are apparently a ccd cam so go for it.

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malc-c

malc-c

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The reason the Phillips SPC900 is so good is because it uses a CCD sensor rather than CMOS sensor which is common to most webcams of today.

The alternative to the SPC900 appears to be the MS Lifecam Cinema / Studio, but this requires a little more work to modify than the SPC900

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malc-c

malc-c

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Hi, my advice would be to wait until the Philips SPC900 is back in the shops and then buy one at a reasonable price! ;)

The problem is that the SPC900 has been out of production for some time, so they are becoming rare to find. If Morgans do succeed in finding some more I don't think they will be at the same low price (£14) as they have been in the past.

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Uhwaz

Uhwaz

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I bought MS lifecam from e-bay for 35euro if i remember right and works pretty well for Moon and planets

edit : it was modded already just needed old EP casing to stick it in ( bit of tape around cams body and ready to go ;) )

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