first try with spc900 webcam

[colinn]

I got a used pre-modded philips spc900 off e-bay - circuit board in a maplins box with adapator

said goodbye to jupiter in the twilight haze - only just managed to tweak a dark band out of it in registax..

couldn't get anything out of mars

could just about get rings out of saturns 'ears'..

so not a brilliant start - but a start - have some work to do - need to revisit collimation - need to work out a better focusing technique - also when I opened the box of my pre-modded cam, I saw the circuit board is wedged in place by two halves of a pencil eraser! - so could well be not aligned with the focal plane

also need to get a decent barlow so I can see a bigger image - the 3x barlow that came with the scope is useless

then practised my object finding technique by turning up the webcam gain and going for orion neb in the orange haze - managed to find the central stars...

not much but strangely pleasing to me given conditions - couldn't even see the sword with naked eye

even more surprising was when a maxed up the registax wavelets - I thought the below was maybe artefacts, but when compared with a rotated web image of the nebula, I think the webcam really did pick up faint traces of it - wasn't expecting that at 10-15 frames/sec with orion low, lots of lp, and a full moon!

[Probablynot]

My first attempt at photographing the gorgeous colours of the Orion Nebula brought up this. No nebula, of course, but I'm pretty sure my pic shows 4 of the M42 Trapezium stars, plus Theta-2.

Amazing to think those Trapezium stars are rotating tightly about themselves. I wonder how long it'll take for them to move so far that the Trapezium layout is visibly changed in our telescopes?

I was using my (modded) MS Lifecam Cinema.

[Tribal-Wolf]

Curious but what mods have you done to your lifecam? Oh and your red font on yer sig plays havoc with my eyes lol

[Probablynot]

I just followed the modding instructions at

http://stargazerslounge.com/diy-astronomer/96400-hd-webcam-modification.html

Superb! And so easy to follow!

[Tribal-Wolf]

No LX mods on those then? The orion pic has quite good contrast for an out the box cam, focus could be better but I was quite surprised it picked it up at all. I had one on order from a seller on ebay for a good price then he just refunded me for no reason and I never got it. Might have to have another go at that then.

[colinn]

My first attempt at photographing the gorgeous colours of the Orion Nebula brought up this. No nebula, of course, but I'm pretty sure my pic shows 4 of the M42 Trapezium stars, plus Theta-2.

Amazing to think those Trapezium stars are rotating tightly about themselves. I wonder how long it'll take for them to move so far that the Trapezium layout is visibly changed in our telescopes?

I was using my (modded) MS Lifecam Cinema.

snap - exact same group of stars as me - and same field of view - although yours are clearer - might have a go at the long exposure webcam mod I've seen links to, once I've dusted off some soldering skills

[colinn]

My first attempt at photographing the gorgeous colours of the Orion Nebula brought up this. No nebula, of course, but I'm pretty sure my pic shows 4 of the M42 Trapezium stars, plus Theta-2.

Amazing to think those Trapezium stars are rotating tightly about themselves. I wonder how long it'll take for them to move so far that the Trapezium layout is visibly changed in our telescopes?

I was using my (modded) MS Lifecam Cinema.

you say no nebula but I've been playing with my webcam nebula-less images - here's the histogram for your image - some stuff bunched up there at the dark end:

now if we take that narrow spike and spread it out - there's more there than dark sky - thar be nebula in them thar noisy pixels!:

difficult to get from there to a nice image but using despeckle and denoising filters and then resorting to some art media effects and then layering sharpened stars back on top, I got this - not a true image I suppose but quite pretty:

[Cubemaster]

This is what I got with a SPC900 once modded for long exposure. A lot to improve on but shows what can be done

[Tribal-Wolf]

Got a xbox cam today so I opened it up, swapped a few parts from an old cmos webcam so the adapter would fit and blacked out the LEDs with black nail varnish (don't tell my daughter lol). Just need to test it on a clear night now.

[colinn]

This is what I got with a SPC900 once modded for long exposure. A lot to improve on but shows what can be done

wow - I've read through the how-to for LE - must definitely give it a go now - that's amazing for a 640x480 webcam sensor

[mdstuart]

TIP..focus on the pole star as it does not move and then swing around to Saturn and take a video with your cam...

Mark

[parklife2uk]

Got a xbox cam today so I opened it up, swapped a few arts from an old cmos webcam so the adapter would fit and blacked out the LEDs with black nail varnish (don't tell my daughter lol). Just need to test it on a clear night now.

I've just ordered an xbox cam - what have you attached to yours?

[Tribal-Wolf]

At the moment it has the adapter from my Philips toucam. I pulled it apart and swapped the lens holder with one from another old webcam so it would stick further out and the adapter would screw in and I painted over the 4 green LEDs inside with black nail varnish. I think I am going to fit a small fan on the back with micro switch as these little things get a bit warm and after a while there is quite a bit of pixel glow. I haven't had a chance to try it in the scope yet but I managed to test the focus point using the Philips lens and it should be ok. I have 2 Toucams so I might do the LX mod on one now and sell the other depending on the outcome.

[littlebeagle]

TIP..focus on the pole star as it does not move and then swing around to Saturn and take a video with your cam...

Mark

I only recently learnt that focusing using a star was quicker and easier than focusing on a planet, this tip is superb stops all the messing about. Thank you.

[JamesF]

It doesn't take long at all for the Xbox cam to get hot and affect the image. I experimented last night, saving sixteen frames of maximum exposure at zero gain of the same dark view from my office window, with ten seconds delay between each. For each image I added up the total value of all of the pixels. Each image had a total greater than the previous one and by the end of the run the total was more than twice that of the first.

James