Imaging jupiter with webcam

[scottphillips]

Hey guys just got my new scope and also an Xbox webcam which I have modified to use for videoing and imaging the planets.

I was just wondering what are the best settings to use in sharpcarp for video footage, and also imaging the planets to get the best results.

I will be stacking these images to get the final image but I would like to give myself the best chance of some good images by using the correct settings

Thanks

[RichM63]

I last used,

2000 frames:

[Philips SPC 900NC PC Camera]
Frame Divisor=1
Resolution=640x480
Frame Rate (fps)=10,00
Colour Space / Compression=YUY2
Exposure=-9
Brightness=53
Contrast=32
Saturation=72
Gamma=0
ColorEnable=255
BacklightCompensation=0
Gain=60

You may need/want to play around with the gain setting to help you acheive focus, but if you can set it very high and then get Jupiter's moons as sharp points of light you will be in focus, then drop the gain as above to capture planet detail.

[Ant]

Nothing to add to Rich's comment. Using the moons is really useful in getting the focus right!

Ant

[JamesF]

The settings will be completely different for the Xbox cam I imagine.

I'd start by leaving everything at the defaults except exposure time and gain, which I'd put up to maximum until you have the target on the camera sensor.  Set the video output format to YUYV, or YUY2 or I420 if you're offered it, not MJPG.

Once you have the planet on the sensor, decrease the exposure until you get about 10fps and then enable the histogram display (it used to be on a drop-down menu somewhere, though I've not used SharpCap in some time) and adjust the gain to get the histogram full to about 70%.  From then on it's down to experimentation really.

Getting the focusing right will probably be the hardest part.  Remember that the focuser position for the camera image to be in focus will not be the same as for an eyepiece (unless you can find an eyepiece to add a parfocal ring to and "make it so").  If the camera is too far out of focus you may well see nothing on the sensor (or little more than a hazy doughnut) on the camera.  Focusing on something hard to miss, such as the Moon, and then marking the focuser position somehow so you can come back to it later might be helpful in getting to reasonably close to start with.  The view of a planet with an eyepiece can be badly out of focus and still allow you to centre it, so don't worry about having it in focus for that as long as you can see it.

James