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Orion StarShoot USB Eyepiece Camera II

xvariablestarx

By xvariablestarx
in Discussions - Cameras

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xvariablestarx

xvariablestarx

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I am very much a beginner in imaging so forgive me please.

I have a Orion StarShoot USB Eyepiece Camera II, which I use to make simple videos of planets and the moon/sun, but I find the quality of the video isn't great. It is a very cheap imager, so perhaps a better webcam/imager would help? I am not looking for Hubble type images, I am looking to capture something approximately like what I see using my own eye at a eyepiece.

Any suggestions? Would a Orion StarShoot 5 MP Solar System Color Camera be better for the humble expectations I have or is it overkill? This is a Dob I am using so I have to slew it by hand to follow an object hence the "overkill" comment.

This is the quality I get at the moment. https://youtu.be/YToXvLTWU2o

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xvariablestarx

xvariablestarx

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1 hour ago, Demonperformer said:

Have you tried "stacking" your video in Registax (a free program). This can turn a mediocre video into a quite nice image. Possibly something to try before spending money.

I get something like this out of Registax. It looks pretty bad.

oldtest.jpg

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Demonperformer

Demonperformer

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1 hour ago, xvariablestarx said:

I get something like this out of Registax. It looks pretty bad.

oldtest.jpg

Looks to me as if the focus is a bit out. What do you use to focus the camera? I find with Jupy, it is a good method to way-up the settings to overexpose the planet, but bring the moons into visibility, use them to focus, and then drop the settings down again for capture.

What is your approximate latitude? Or, to put it another way, how high is Jupy getting above your horizon? From UK latitudes (50/55N) the planets are poorly placed at the moment and don't get very high, which doesn't help.

I would also be inclined to drop the exposure time a bit. You can always pull faint details out of an image by brightening it, but once you have burned out the detail by longer exposures you can never get it back.

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xvariablestarx

xvariablestarx

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8 hours ago, happy-kat said:

Reading other posts on your starshoot you need to turn the gamma up all the way. Try that next time you can have another go.

I don't think you're yet exhausted the equipment you already have.

 

I use Linux on my laptop, but the program I used to capture, Guvcview, has some controls for the camera, which I will try next time. It issue is, I use a Dobsonian telescope, and I am, usually struggling just to keep Jupiter in view as I record.

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xvariablestarx

xvariablestarx

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8 hours ago, Demonperformer said:

Looks to me as if the focus is a bit out. What do you use to focus the camera? I find with Jupy, it is a good method to way-up the settings to overexpose the planet, but bring the moons into visibility, use them to focus, and then drop the settings down again for capture.

What is your approximate latitude? Or, to put it another way, how high is Jupy getting above your horizon? From UK latitudes (50/55N) the planets are poorly placed at the moment and don't get very high, which doesn't help.

I would also be inclined to drop the exposure time a bit. You can always pull faint details out of an image by brightening it, but once you have burned out the detail by longer exposures you can never get it back.

I use Guvcview, on Linux, I will include a screenshot below. I could see a tiny dot following the planet in the camera, so I know it was moon not a hot pixel. I live in Minnesota, and Jupiter was fairly well placed above the horizon in the sky before I tried viewing, my scope was outside an hour or two by the time I tried taking video, so it was cool.

 

 

Screenshot at 2018-04-18 11-52-10.png

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happy-kat

happy-kat

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Firstly the idea is to let the planet drift across the field of view for each video created. There won't be rotation of the planet in short clips.

Secondly why not try oocapture written by JamesF on this forum.

Good luck on your next try.

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xvariablestarx

xvariablestarx

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16 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

Firstly the idea is to let the planet drift across the field of view for each video created. There won't be rotation of the planet in short clips.

Secondly why not try oocapture written by JamesF on this forum.

Good luck on your next try.

Do you have a link for this oocapture?

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xvariablestarx

xvariablestarx

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1 hour ago, happy-kat said:

Your XT8 looks like real winner for planets. Sorry I can't offer more help.

I am sure it is mostly my failures, not the scope, but I did notice that the "seeing" wasn't as good for Jupiter last night as it was when I made the first video. I need to either get a better camera, and/or I need to swallow my pride and buy a 127 SLT mak like I sold three years ago because I didn't have room for it. Thank you for your help, I honestly did my best at focusing, testing for the smallest/least blurred image with the camera, but it didn't work.

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happy-kat

happy-kat

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You have a lovely big dob, it's not insignificantly sized it is an 8 inch mirror?

Do you get decent images of the Moon using your Starshoot?

Jupiter over here is way too low I can only dream of how high it as a couple years ago.

If you look to upgrade perhaps spend time reading reviews and looking at images to see if the camera considering is going to be a noticeable step up.

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xvariablestarx

xvariablestarx

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12 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

You have a lovely big dob, it's not insignificantly sized it is an 8 inch mirror?

Do you get decent images of the Moon using your Starshoot?

Jupiter over here is way too low I can only dream of how high it as a couple years ago.

If you look to upgrade perhaps spend time reading reviews and looking at images to see if the camera considering is going to be a noticeable step up.

Yes, its an 8 inch. I think the optics are ok, its mostly my luck, skill and a second rate camera running on an old laptop. The fact that the laptop is old means its its not very good at image processing, but I think the main issue is my camera. As for the moon, I can get ok shots with it, look at this video I made a few years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSyMQrtFRGs

 

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