Webcam & tracking quick questions

[Bathurst]

Hi all, managed to get hold of a cheap laptop and an old webcam (it's rubbish but will do for now!).

Obviously polar alignment is required, but as long as the object (Jupiter for example) remains on screen whilst the capture is taking place, does that effect stacking?

Or do I have to have the motor running and get the object as still as possible on screen?

My theory is the stacking procedure will automatically join the frames, but maybe wrong!

First play tonight, thanks for any help.

[Jonk]

From what I've learnt, it doesn't have to be central in all frames.

Registax or another stacking program will take each frame and analyse, but the more even they are, the better.

Look up on youtube there's loads of registax tutorials.

I hope to master this technique soon as I am also new to it all.

[JB80]

You can afford to be a bit rough with planetary stuff.

At first I used to not bother with motors(as I didn't have them) and let the planet drift across the screen and as it gets to one side I would gently turn the knob to bring the planet back across. This works well enough but then you really need to process the resulting avi and centre the planet as best as possible which at the time involved a few different pieces of software.

Now though we have the excellent PIPP program which is an all in one pre processor and will centre the individual frames as best as it can and from there you can take it to registax or AS!2 for the final stacking.

So yes in theory you can do it like that but from experience having the motors running helps a great deal and you still don't really need to be accurately polar aligned, just point the mount towards North and set up the right latitude and the planet should be relatively stable on the screen. Slight drift is normal but it can mean the difference between having to use PIPP or not.

[Bathurst]

Brilliant thanks guys, I'll check those programs out only got DSS for stacking purposes currently.

[Thewitty]

Just as an addition, if you try Registax6 and can't get on with it. 5 seems a lot easier to use (might just be me though). It will track your alignment selection all over the screen as long as there are no quick jumps in the video. If it thinks it has lost the alignment selection it will ask you to re select and off you go again. Great bit of software.  I am sure you can't beat a tracking mount but sometimes we have to start small

[glowingturnip]

as Jarrod said, use PIPP for pre-processing, it'll centre the planet in each amended frame, and even reject frames where the planet had wandered slightly off-screen on one side.  It's actually to your benefit if the planet is wandering round the frame, since the hot pixels, dust bunnies etc will get averaged out

[Bathurst]

Right, managed to capture Jupiter albeit briefly, got the webcam in place with an elastic band over the EP. It then dawned on me after that I did'nt have the Barlow in...DOH!

To be honest I'm not exactly sure what I was doing was right but I got a few AVIs anyway (1000 max for now), think I need to do some reading and learn this properly....plus the webcam is poor I think?

http://www.tesco.com/direct/tesco-w109-03mp-vga-webcam/202-3157.prd - only a cheap thing from Tesco that I had lying around.

Thanks again all, I'm on the road just got a long way to go

[Thewitty]

Try one of these if it fits in your webcam. Will probably need you to take the camera apart.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Webcam-Adaptor-to-Fit-1-25-Eyepiece-Tube-Holder-with-Built-in-Filter-Brand-New-/141107559141?pt=UK_Photography_Telescopes&hash=item20daaa7ae5

Much easier than an elastic band

That way you don't need an eyepiece, it goes straight into the Barlow.

Brian

[tekkydave]

Try one of these if it fits in your webcam. Will probably need you to take the camera apart.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Webcam-Adaptor-to-Fit-1-25-Eyepiece-Tube-Holder-with-Built-in-Filter-Brand-New-/141107559141?pt=UK_Photography_Telescopes&hash=item20daaa7ae5

Much easier than an elastic band

That way you don't need an eyepiece, it goes straight into the Barlow.

Brian

I used one of these on a cheapie Asda webcam but I had to dismantle the webcam to get the lens out!

[Thewitty]

Yep, I did the same with the Xbox web cam. Had to saw the front off as well. Works pretty well for a £5 webcam though.