Washed out Jupiter image using webcam

[Andymarrison]

Hello all you seasoned imagers! I tried out a bit of planetary imaging for the very first time last night using a modded Microsoft Lifecam HD. Managed to get Jupiter's disk focused OK on the laptop screen, but none of the recorded frames showed any detail at all - just a white disk. I briefly tried aligning and stacking 20 or so frames using a bit of MacOS software called Lynkeos, but this really didn't make any difference. Do I need to adjust the sensitivity of the CCD using some software (if this is possible); should I be using a filter to reduce the brightness; or am I just expecting too much? Lots of dumb questions - as you can see I'm a complete imaging novice.

[earth titan]

Which imaging software were you using? Most people use Sharpcap but I'm not sure if this works with your camera.

Sounds like you have excessive exposure or gain. Could also be a focus issue, but I'm guessing the above.

Typed by me on my fone, using fumms... Excuse eny speling errurs.

[nephilim]

I use Sharpcap but thats windows only as far as i know, once the image is in focus and looks ok on my laptop the recorded avi looks the same so I cant understand why you'd have that problem, maybe someone else here has advice capturing with Mac software (Like earth Titan above mentioned you'll need to specify the software u use)

[Andymarrison]

I use a Mac, and unfortunately Sharpcap doesn't run under MacOS, so I used a free webcam app called Debut - seems to have only the simplest level of control (brightness, contrast and "gamma") - I guess the obvious thing is to fiddle with the brightness control? Perhaps I should hunt around for a more sophisticated bit of capture software, as well?

[JimFR]

if you can get Iris on the mac, that has a function to bring the live image to your workspace. Its freeware, and probably GNU so my be worth hunting around to see if someone has built the binaries for mac.

[pmf]

Are you using an IR blocking filter? If you don't then planetary detail gets lost like this.

The sensor picks up the IR very strongly and washes out the image.

Until I started using using a blocking filter all my images were very bland.