Questions/Comments on Primer - planetary imaging with a Toucam

[plasma.d00d]

Thanks for the great article. My TouCam should be here next week sometime and as a complete novice , I am looking forward to getting anything to show up , let alone the quality of some of those images .

Thank you

[MartinB]

Good luck Plasma and gload you found it helpful. Shout out if you need any more help

[plasma.d00d]

Good luck Plasma and gload you found it helpful. Shout out if you need any more help

I currently have a NexStar 8 GPS , I still have to get my head round the collimation "thing" :shock:. Aside from that , when I am trying to focus with it using the focusing knob at the rear when viewing most objects , be that land or in the heavens , I tend to find the focus need to be spot on and there isnt much between spot on and way out , would you recommend one of those Feathertouch fine focusers I have seen like this ..

If poss , can you recommend a UK supplier or would the USA be the best place to purchase (with the added tax / duty / delivery)

Many thanks

[MartinB]

Well the feather touch focusers are supposed to be awesome but Moonlite and William Optics do a crayford focuser for SCTs and they are readily available in the UK http://www.firstlightoptics.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=mcs2-sfocuser They also do away with image shift

Not cheap though and I've always got by with the addition of a larger focussing knob.

[plasma.d00d]

Well the feather touch focusers are supposed to be awesome but Moonlite and William Optics do a crayford focuser for SCTs and they are readily available in the UK http://www.firstlightoptics.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=mcs2-sfocuser They also do away with image shift

Not cheap though and I've always got by with the addition of a larger focussing knob.

Thanks for your reply . Ihad looked at a couple of those crayford focusers (http://home.comcast.net/~wyorock/wyorock.html for example) but wasn't really sure if it actually would fit a NexStar 8 GPS. Also as they are 2 different types doing the same thing , what would be the pro / cons of one over the other ?

Sorry for all my questions or if its off topic

[MartinB]

The moonlight should fit an NS8. No experience of any of them but I know some others have. Try asking under the equipment discussion section, you should get quite a bit of help

[freerange]

Thanks so much for this primer - without it I would have been tearing my hair out. Unfortunately by the time I'd figured out the problems with Vista etc the clouds had rolled in, but at lleast now I'm ready when we do finally have a clear night.

[Meerkat]

Absolutely stonking article Martin, thanks.

After reading it I have now got my Toucam Pro II and the adapter, the dual drives and autofocuser should be arriving today from FLO to fit to my Helios 120mm F1000 refractor.

So, here's hoping the Weekend will let me have a play with the setup!

Thanks again,

Steve

[class27]

Hi Martin, let me start by saying what a great tutorial you have produced! Now it may be me missing something but I have used K3CCD tools v.1 and have a pcvc 820k web cam on a laptop running XP, but I can't get the gain slider to move and the resolution only goes as far as 352 x 288. Also the capture source only shows Toucam XS. I'm using driver for 820k. When I try Vlounge it shows the cam as XS but the gain slider works ok. The output size is still 352 x 288 max though. I tried K3 v.3 but still the same! Any ideas please?

Ron

[GazOC]

Isn't the pcvc 820k AKA the Toucam Fun? I think the sensor on that might only be 320x240 rather than 640x480.

[class27]

Hi, I bought the toucam described as 810B but can't find any drivers for that. There are so many similar looking ones but with different numbers, so confusing!

Ron

[class27]

Hi again, just to say I've now bought a Vesta web cam and all the instructions on the primer work exactly with this one. So hopefully I'm sorted, just need clear skies to try it out!

Ron