focusing webcam ?

[Charlie_132]

I've got a logitech 4000 astro webcam today, just put it in the eyepiece holder aiming at the moon .. But I can't focus on it. Its just a white circle ... Tried turning the focuser but can't see any difference ... Anyone got any suggestions ? I would like to get a photo of saturn tonight

[Tiddles]

What scope do you have?

[Spoon]

i get that too! i ended up getting a double moon filter, helped massively. it is just white because it is a full moon tonight and so there is too much glow. worse time to observe the wonders of the night sky! Hope this helped

Clear Skies!!

[Freddie]

Your gain or exposure time may be to great which will over expose the image and cause it to be very bright and white. Adjust these down and see if that helps

[Charlie_132]

I have a skywatcher 130p

I'm using Sharpcam, what settings should I change to be able to get a pic of saturn ?

[Tiddles]

It's likely that the focus point will be a long way in, maybe further than the focuser will travel.

[Charlie_132]

So this webcam won't pick it up ?

[Tinker1947]

My MS Xbox cam sits near the end of the outward travel of the focusor, its was close to needing a extention tube but not quite, try moving your cam away from the tube by hand to see it it will focus, if it does go for a suitable extention tube, 2" or 3",,,

[marshy123]

The gain suggestion sounds likely. What software are you using? If it doesn't have gain controls try some freeware called WcCtrl which let's you access all available adjustable parameters for your webcam. I have my brightness at 50% then drop the gain right down to start with (should go pretty much black). You can then just bring the gain up slowly till something useful appears. Also with WcCTRL you can save presets if you want. Cheers

[Charlie_132]

Where can I download wcctrl ?

Can you send a link

[Tiddles]

Or SharpCap works well and gives good control.

[Charlie_132]

I can't get anything good from sharpcam

[Charlie_132]

Given up now ... I downloaded wxastocapture, changed the settings to fit my cam

But still can't pick anything atall up ... It loooks the same just aiming it into the sky by hand as it does through the telescope which doesn't malke sense atall ...

Has anyone got aby 130p webcam photos to inspire me to carrry on ?

[Tribal-Wolf]

There are some good video tutorials on the astronomy shed which show you how to set the webcam up with sharpcap and also how to use registax. I won't post a link cuz I don;t know if it's allowed.

[Charlie_132]

Oh okay I ll just google it in the morning. Thanks

[Tiddles]

My sharpcap settings for a moon mosaic in progress now. Taken tonight with a skyliner 150p and mod'd xbox cam.

[Video Camera ]

Frame Divisor=1

Resolution=640x480

Frame Rate (fps)=30.00

Colour Space / Compression=YUY2

Exposure=-10

Brightness=142

Contrast=50

Hue=3

Saturation=38

Sharpness=0

Gamma=180

WhiteBalance=3146

BacklightCompensation=0

Gain=8

[JamesF]

Gain, gamma and/or brightness settings sound like the culprits to me if you're not seeing any change when the focuser position is moved. If they were right and you didn't have enough in-focus then I'd still expect some fairly obvious change in the image (which doesn't preclude you still not having enough in-focus, of course

Can't imagine why SharpCap wouldn't see the camera. Could be worth plugging it in and unplugging it again a couple of times before finally plugging it in, waiting for the OS to find it and then starting SharpCap. It's probably also worth experimenting during the day to see if you can get an image of something some distance away.

James

[brucen]

Using my webcam I need to do one of 2 things to focus on the 130P - which has the 2" focuser with the 1.25" adaptor.

1. Use a Barlow

2. Unscrew the top of the adaptor (the bit with the screws to hold the eyepiece) and wedge the webcam directly in to the hole which, in effect, gives more inward travel.

Other than for the moon I always use a Barlow as I get much better results. The recommended focal length for using a webcam is a minimum of 2000 but my 130P is the 650. I seem to get pretty good results with the 2x which is increases it to 1300 but am trying to use the 3x more although it is much harder to locate objects and achieve focus using the manual focuser.

[Charlie_132]

Okay, I'm going to have a go at finding stuff today, I had a 5 min go yesterday during the afternoon and everything was just blurry though and a hint of colour ...

I'm using a logitech quickcam 4000 ccd with astro part fitted and modified.

What settings should I be looking to use ?

The person I brought it off on ebay sent me the settings to use in wxastrocapture, but I used those and still couldn't get any detail atall

Only other option is wcctrl I think its called ... But I can't find the download link

[JamesF]

If you can't find focus by itself then I agree it's a good idea to try with a barlow. It may well move the point of focus back far enough to bring it in range.

James

[Charlie_132]

would a 3x barlow be too powerful ?

im waiting for a 2x to be delivered

[JamesF]

A 3x should be ok for testing it in daylight at least. Should be ok for the Moon and Mars as well, but may be too much for Saturn.

James

[Charlie_132]

i focused on saturn last night with a 3x barlow and could see a little bit of detail but it was blurry.

just downloaded wcctrl but when i connect the webcam from the list nothong hapens the webcam picture doesnt come up .. how to i get the picture to come up ?

i downloaded registax but i cant even work out how to connect the webcam atall there isnt a button for it

[JamesF]

Right, let's go back to the start and see if it's possible to get something on-screen with SharpCap, because we know that works well when it works.

Plug the camera in, run SharpCap and select the "camera" menu tab. Does it show a menu entry for your camera? If so, select it. You should then get something on-screen. It may choose the smallest resolution by default, but you can change that with the options on the right of the SharpCap screen.

If SharpCap doesn't find it then I guess you need to check that the drivers are installed and working properly. I'm largely out of my depth here because I only do Windows under protest.

James

[Charlie_132]

sharpcap does bring my webcam up, i just dont know how to edit the settings /: