bit of help please

[phil m105]

hi, im new to astronamy in the last month ive just bought my first scope which is a skywatcher 150p & would like to do some basic imaging of planets with webcam ive got registax & sharpcap, tonight i tried to get saturn on my webcam but was unable to see the image on laptop although i could see it in eye peice am i doing something wrong? could anyone give some advice it would be very helpfull.

thanks in advance.

[Ibbo!]

Hi and welcome

The webcam chip is small and it can be hard to get the subject on the chip use a higher mag eyepiece and centre the planet and very carefully switch over to the webcam

Saturn could also have been way of focus as well

increase the exposure so the planet is overexposed to start with then knock it down when you have it centred

Steve

[stargazing_chris]

you either have to use the webcam with its lens and the eyepiece in the telescope, or no eyepiece and remove the lens on the camera.

Chris.

[phil m105]

thanks for replying, i had saturn in centre of eye peice with a 10mm ep & was clearly visible then quickly swapped ep with webcam but didnt show up on laptop screen i fiddled with the focus & slight tracking but it was no where to be seen, ive taken lens off webcam so it just slots into my barlow & used it on the moon to see if all worked ok & got some nice images of moon & i also got higher magnification with webcam than i did with the 10mm ep is this normal? i was thinking it might be the webcam not strong enough or something? or is it something else? i didnt try the exposure as its first time ive done anything like this & not used sharpcap before & still finding my way round using it.

if anyone has any ideas what im doing wrong or advice they could give me it would be much appreciated

thanks

[pel]

After you get the planet in view with an EP. I set the gain to maximum in Sharpcap and the focuser on the telescope to about the middle of it's range and then put the webcam in, I normally get some sort of image then.

Once I have it centered on the laptop screen I then add a x2 barlow and then a x3.

You can also re-locate the planet easier if your finder is aligned perfectly to your OTA.

[Psychobilly]

I used to use a cheap 8-24 Zoom EP from ebay made parafocal to the camera... you could quickly switch between the two and zoom out if you had lost the planet off the chip...

[stargazing_chris]

The webcam is roughly equivalent to the 5 mm eyepiece, so the item must be really well centered.

also if the focus if too far off, even with the terget centered you will get nothing in sharpcap.

Chris

[phil m105]

thanks for all the replies & advice,

waiting for a chance to try again tonight but bit cloudy!!

hope it clears.