Cam.....

[An Essex UK Person]

Hi I'm researching a web cam for my 12" Skywatcher dob and and I'm trying to shortcut due to the amount of information out there, so if I don't get moving it'll be light skys again.. 

 
I'm looking at something around the £200-300 mark, colour, good quality as I want as little editing as possible. 1.25 or 2". Deep sky and planetary combined if poss?
Can any of you guys point me in the right direction?

[ronin]

What is the webcam for ?

Is the Dobsonian a goto version?

Editing is not a function of the webcam, it just gets the images for you to edit. For a webcam video of a planet most use Registax and/or AS2.

Unless the scope is a goto then I would say you are limited to planetary imaging, Jupiter, Saturn later in the year and next year Mars - but Mars is never a good subject either for imaging or visual. Even if goto I am a little unsure of a dobsonian for long exposure imaging, I know there is a section on imaging without an equitorial but equitorials are really the mount with which to do imaging.

If the intention is to put camera in the focuser and head down the EEA route of output to a laptop to view then again it needs to track so goto but after that is fairly straight foreward. One potential source of this type of setup is the set up used by the CAA at Cambridge IoA on the public Wednesday night talks. They use (I think) a Scope > Webcam > Laptop > Projector set up for the presentation they put on. You would need a clear night to see the way it all goes together. Since unless it is clear I doubt the get the equipment out.

The ZWO 178 comes to mind but it is around £100 more then the budget, keep an eye out on the used side perhaps.

Where in Essex? Just Astrofest is on next weekend Sat 11th at Kensington High St and it could be worth a visit to talk to some of the imaging retailers (thinking Ian King here). There is another thought but that would bge some time off, about May I guess. So likely a bit late.

[An Essex UK Person]

Thanks ronin,  apparently I can use no more than 3 mtrs of usb cable with the ZWO's so that would need some research.     Thanks for the feedback,  I know Ian so will give him a call in the week..

 

[ronin]

I have no idea how long a USB cable that can be used. As said a lot depends on the use that is intended. I also think that as people we are getting very used to wifi and the distances that that can operate over - going to be interestng to see how astronomy goes as it is falling well behind in several areas. Although I suspect one big problem is simply managing to power al lthe things we are used to, or expect.

Cannot say what is actually used at Cambridge, but from memory the laptop is always set close to the scope so that bit may well be USB for the camera. The scopes are I seem to recall biggish Meades and they had/have network type connectors in those anyway and certainly at that age not USB. The laptop to projector is further and I assume the cables are well over 3 meter and so that is likely something like an RJ45 network cable, or equally likely a dedicated item for one end or another. It will be the same as used in presentations where people connect their laptop to a projector so fairly standard.

As said if you are close enough then the next clear Wednesday night it could be useful to get there and have a look, maybe ask a few questions. Just thinking a case of they have done it so little point in reinventing the wheel. Could be useful to find out the cameras they use.

I only mentioned Ian King as simply I do not know of others that are as specific to the imaging aspect. Likely will be others but not a clue who.

 

[ollypenrice]

It would be best to say that with a tiny webcam chip, quite a long focal length and an altazimuth mount, deep sky is out. Even if you have tracking on your Dob it will not be tracking in the sense of long exposure accurate.  Folks do manage to get fast frame capture images from Dobs and a few arch specialists do more than that but they are at the cutting edge of new technology and expertise.

If the Dob is undriven it will be fast frame/solar system only. If it is driven that will probably still be the case.

Olly