webcam advice please

[greenkat]

Hi, I have a Tenzy webcam with a lens that unscrews, does anybody know if the webcam adaptors at telescope house would fit this webcam, or if it is any good for astrophotography ? If so, is there any software to make it do long exposures .

Any info would be great

Cheers

[centroid]

Not heard of that particular web-cam, so can't comment on it's suitability for astro imaging.

However, to make a web-cam operate in long exposure mode, requires physical modification to the camera. Software can't do this for you, but can operate a suitable, and suitably modified camera.

Hope this helps.

Dave

[George]

As far as Im aware only webcams fitted with a CCD chip rather than a CMOS chip are any good for astro imaging. Long exposure is only achieved by hacking the circuitry of the cam. A list of suitable webcams can be found here http://homepage.ntlworld.com/molyned/web-cameras.htm

Hope this helps

[greenkat]

Cheers peoples

I have read some of the stuff on modding webcams, but think thats a bit above my balding head

I've just downloaded some software called exposure from www.nimisis.com, a trial, says its for doing long exposures with wencams.

Dont think it actualy works because i get the same picture if i set it for 2 secs or 60 secs

I'm just tinkering at the moment, and just wondered about this cam because of the removable lens.

Its grat for close up macro photos tho

[blinky]

Depends what you want to image. A non modified webcam is great for Lunar and Planetary imaging. Only needs to be modded for deep space imaging. Also I dont see any reason why a CMOS sensor cannot be used at least for the moon and I would not rule it out for the planets either.

[blinky]

Not sure how that application works. Basically as has been said you need to modify the webcam for long exposure imaging. I 'think' this app may work by stacking multiple short or normal exposure images to create a psudo long exposure one. This wont work with deep sky images because the short exposures wont have gathered enough photons to be measured, if you know what I mean!

[nimisis]

Cheers peoples

I have read some of the stuff on modding webcams, but think thats a bit above my balding head

I've just downloaded some software called exposure from www.nimisis.com, a trial, says its for doing long exposures with wencams.

Dont think it actualy works because i get the same picture if i set it for 2 secs or 60 secs

I'm just tinkering at the moment, and just wondered about this cam because of the removable lens.

Its grat for close up macro photos tho

Hi, I'm the author of Exposure, the software you've downloaded from Nimisis.com. (I noticed some traffic coming from this forum...) I hope that it does work to your satisfaction, but if you have any suggestions on ways to improve it, please let me know! Thanks

[barkis]

There has been numerous Lunar and Planetary images posted on here by members using webcams that have only had a nosepiece added.

As far as I know a few of them were unmodded for long exposures. The avi file produced was processed with K3CCD Tools and stacked in Registax. Some damned good images they were Too.

Ron.

[greenkat]

Cheers Blinky

Its more for trying long exposure deep sky stuff, not done any of that before. And maybe planets.

I can get good moon pics from my digital cameras, and have had a few half decent pics of jupiter too, none as good as on here , but i'll keep trying

[greenkat]

Bllody ell :shock:, glad i came back here , wasnt expectin the auther of the software to pop up

Nimisis, does the software work as described abouve, by stacking short exposures?

If i set it for 60 seconds in a lighted room, shudnt i get an overexposed image ?

Cheers for all your posts so quickly too

[nimisis]

That's right, it does stack the normal images and by looking at the luminance value of the pixels decides on whether it is kept in the final image.

I've had one customer want to catch UFOs before, and a couple of other astronomy forums have discussed it, but yeah, I suspect it's not best suited for stars. I haven't been able to get a good result myself - but London has bad light pollution... Doing long exposures of other things like cars and trains though and it's all right!

[greenkat]

Cheers Nimisis,

Youd be onto a winner I think if you could get something to do proper long exposures for astro stuff

Nice of you to pop along and explain it anyway, keep up the good work