Modifying Logitech C270 Webcam for Astrophotography

[Kris_A]

Hello all,

I have recently modified a Logitech C270 webcam to use with my telescope and thought someone might find a write-up useful.  I have included a few links below but I don't have any affiliation with them.

The webcam I bought is the one linked below as I had read you can use a webcam adapter directly with it, unfortunately it wasn't that straightforward:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01BGBJ8Y0/

I wanted to use a metal webcam adapter to go from an M12 thread to 1.25" eyepiece size:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1-25-Webcam-Adapter-for-Astronomy-Telescope-CCD-Camera-Monocular-Professional-Telescope-Accessories-W2158/32972118644.html

When I disassembled the webcam I found it has an 8mm threaded lens, so there was no way to attach the webcam adapter.  Luckily I found a part on Thingverse that someone designed for exactly this purpose:

https://makerware.thingiverse.com/thing:2783610

I found a 3d printing service on eBay and got 2 of them printed out and sent to me for a few pounds.  I think it would have been better if I get the printed in black to make them more opaque, but it didn't cause any problems.

This part replaces the lens holder on the C270 and fits the M12 thread of the adapter:

To install it you simply remove the original lens holder from the board by removing the 2 screws on the back of the circuit board and screw the printed one on in its place.  This does expose the sensor so be careful not to touch it!

The next issue was enlarging the hole in the front cover of the C270 case to allow fitting the webcam adapter, I did this with a dremel and made a bit of a mess but in the end it looks pretty neat with the adapter screwed on:

 

A few points to note:

1 - There is an LED on the board to show when the webcam is on, I covered this with a small bit of black tape and also stuck some black tape around the outside of the printed adapter to make sure no light got through from the LED

2 - The 3d printed holder is a little loose on the webcam adapter thread, I stuck a little tape inside the holder to stiffen this up.

3 - After all this work I found the sensor was a little dirty, you can carefully clean it with a dry cotton bud or 2

Lastly, most of the weight is in the bracket fixed to the back of the webcam so I wanted to remove this.  If you peel off the little round stickers on the end of the hinge you can remove a screw, push out the hinge pin and remove the bracket:

The final product looks like this:

After all this I finally got around to testing it out a few nights ago in my Skywatcher 127 MAK.  I installed it directly into the back tube of the telescope without the diagonal, just a moon filter installed.  The field of view is about the same as a 10mm eyepiece in my scope, and apart from being a pain in the backside to focus I got a few nice pictures of the moon.   I recorded some short videos using SharpCap and stacked them in AutoStakkert, results below:

I used the automatic sharpening in Autostakkert and it looks little extreme, I have attached the original images below for reference.

I'm just beginning my journey with astrophotography and will be trying to capture some pictures of some planets when they come into view!

Any suggestions for next steps?

Thanks,

Kris

[Chris]

Nice solution. I posted a vid on youtube where I modded this camera and got a reply from someone with the same issue. Your thread helped really helped them out, cheers  

[JRMaca]

Did you find you had any problems with the image to start with? For example when I did the mod today and tried to test in the daytime. The picture from the telescope was just black, when pulling it out and moving around I can get light now and then but sure this isn’t normal?

[DaveL59]

do you get a light image with the camera out of the scope and just pointing toward a lit area, a window or white wall for example?

should give a flat white image on the screen. If that's not working reliably then there may be an issue with the unit or perhaps the gain settings, I assume you're using sharpcap to capture the video? I noted that you can set gain up to a point then thereafter more gain meant a dark image with an un-modded C270. I may well mod it for astro at some stage after my experiment with a IP-CCTV module once I've had a chance to test that one out.

 

Edited January 7, 2020 by DaveL59