Jupiter on the Xbox webcam

[DeepThought]

In between the clouds last night I managed to grab 400 frames of Jupiter on the 127mm Mak with a modded Xbox webcam.

This is the result post processing:

Quite pleased with this considering the conditions.  It's not often I produce an image that I consider to be worth sharing.

Cheers

[Twiggles]

Certainly seem to have captured more detail there than I have been able to so far (skywatcher 130m). Could be down to my incompetence when setting up, capture settings or possibly just the telescope and camera combination.

Would be nice to get some more info, ie capture software used, barlowed or not, plus processing information.

I think these little cameras perform great for the cost.

[DeepThought]

Video was captured in SharpCap and stacked with AutoStakkert, then the Registax 6 wavelet tab was used to denoise and sharpen. Finally I used Photoshop to convert to greyscale as the colours were rather flat and tweaked the brightness & contrast a little.

No Barlow was used as the Skymax 127 has a 1500mm focal length which gives a big enough image as is.

[Twiggles]

Thanks for the info, not tried autostakkert, I may try it next time we have some clear skies.

[A40farinagolf]

Excellent image, thanks for sharing it.

Can you explain please how the webcam was modified as I'd like to have a go.

My scope has a focal length of 2350 so presumably the image size would be approx. 50% bigger - Is that right?

[JamesF]

To be honest, with this camera and the 127 Mak you could probably go to up to a 3x barlow.  Believe it or not, 1500mm is quite a short focal length for planetary imaging.  The problem with the Xbox camera is that it isn't that sensitive and you may need to back off the focal length for that reason.  What the shorter focal length has bought you though is a nice image including the moons.

James

[reader34]

For a cheep little camera (I've got one ) that's a an awesome image . Congrats on dodging those clouds

[baggywrinkle]

Very nice...some detail comog out there

[Pete Presland]

very nice, like the moons as well! 

[DeepThought]

With reference to the modding enquiry, all I did was remove the lens and glued a small PVC pipe section to the front. I then built up the width of the attached pipe using electrical tape and inserted it into the skywatcher kit barlow with the lens removed to act as an extension tube.

Total build cost was about £2 as I picked up the camera for 75p in Cex. They've gone up to £1.50 now mind you.

https://uk.webuy.com/product.php?sku=882224035453

There's a good guide on modding the xbox cam here:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/131246-xbox-livecam-mod-cliff/

[rikroe666]

nice image, i modded one a while ago but haven't used it yet. This makes me want to try it out now,thanks