anybody out there tried one of these??

[vimes]

Having ripped a cheap webcam apart and with judicious use of gaffer tape, I have yielded some positive results taking pretty pictures of Saturn.

However, my problem was that i had to lug my expensive laptop out to use in the cold, damp outside place. this does not sit well with me. I know that if you use a power hungry program when you get back inside will dry things out, but I don't really want to watch a movie or fly (ahem crash... repeatedly) a plane in FSX. I normally want to go to bed as its long past the bed time of any normal human.

right, to the point!!! I had a brainwave and would like your input, ideas and wagers as to the levels of success I can expect to achieve with this:

its not very clear from the picture but its basically had the webcam treatment. removed the lens and but a piece of rubber in the hole to isolate the sensor from any led's etc inside. the flash has been killed, (after it attempted to kill me), by cutting one of the wires to the capacitor. ***WARINIG*** DISCHARGE THE CAPACITOR BEFORE TAKING THE THING APART. ouchies. all it needs now is the usual plumbing fitting and some gaffer tape and it'll be ready to go.

my thinking was, this thing records video in AVI format. stick it in the scope, take some video, put the memory card in the computer which has been kept warm and dry in the indoors. not to mention the little lady can use it to brows the internet for shoes or whatever the does with it. then i can process the files later.

all this and its a 9MP sensor.

I haven't seen anybody do anything like this and I cant find anything on the internet about it either. I can't be the first one to think of it so I can only surmise that it won't work. Thought it was worth a try though.

what do you clever people think??

[David Smith]

Interesting idea. I am not a clever person so I haven't the faintest idea how successful this may or may not be

You never know you might get a clear sky one of these days to test it

[vimes]

yeah maybe one day. until then I guess I'll just keep ruining perfectly good cameras. I can't see any reason why it won't work, but on the other hand, if it was that easy everyone would be doing it.

[Gina]

Clear sky? cough... splutter... Not only have the stars not been seen for months but the trees at the bottom of the next field have disappeared in the fog which has now replaced the heavy rain ... lovely!!!

[vimes]

Finished article. now i really want to test it.

place your bets now please. will it work??

[AndyUK]

I'm certainly not clever, and I have no idea if it will work or not, but hats off for trying and very interested to see if it does! I think the biggest issue might be bringing it to focus, but if you can get over that hurdle, that'll be a great result...!

[pete_l]

Finished article. now i really want to test it.

Give it a try during daylight. It's always easier to find focus with a brightly lit scene than with a dim star or the moon, that you're never quire sure is in the FoV, anyway.

[vimes]

Well Pete, i took your advice and here is the daylight trial.

about 40 seconds of video stacked in registax. I think the killing of the flash has rendered the still camera useless.

[bus_ter]

My guess is the results will be poor. I don't think you will have enough control of the sensor. When you plugin a webcam you get lots of sliders to play with to adjust exposure, gain, contrast, colour etc. A basic digital camera will try to set all this automatically assuming you're trying to film a regular photographic scene. Even if it does have manual control it probably won't work.

Most new dslrs record HD video at high frame rates and with awesome low light low noise sensors. However for reasons I don't fully understand they produce poor astro images. My 10 pound webcam beats my 500 dslr everytime!

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Mite work pretty cool i done same to a mp4 digital camera travelar dv 3010 and i have took some cool video's of moon with it i just record to sd card

your cam itself you can change different iso's / exposure settings with camera

probably best try iso 100 or iso 200 with moon

if cam has lots of iso settings on it highest setting may work for DSO'S and have it set on it's longest settings.

Ideal these cams for quick easy imaging dont need to use computer /lappy

but you can however also connect the cam to computer.

I mite get another digital camera sometime and use with telescope.

[vimes]

IT WORKS!!!