Help Picking webcam/camera

[mantoast]

Hi guys and girls...

Well I've not even had my scope more than a week and I've got the bug.... but I would like to starting taking some snaps of the moon.

My scope is not great but its has a standard 1.25" eye hole, so I dont mind spending a little on kit to take some photos, as I will be able to use the same kit on a new telescope that I plan to buy in some months/year down the line.

So my question is do I just get a webcam with a 1.25" converter or do you know if i can buy a converter for camera (Canon Power Show SX10 thats uses a 52mm thread)

Tom

[Sponcom]

I purchased a philips webcam SPC900 with a 1.25 adaptor. These are recommended and have a ccd sensor and now cheap on ebay etc. They are also fairly easily to modify if your reasonably handy with a soldering iron to give you control over the exposure time and various mods to allow for better deep sky imaging.

I think you can get adaptors for your standard digital camera but you might be limited as to the exposure time - should be OK for planetary imaging though. I have notice that the cost of the meade DSI pro II camera's - particularly on ebay form the states etc. have started to drop to quite resonable levels now so they could be worth looking at.

I bought a philips webcam to start of with and have been modifying it to SC1 and SC2 levels and added cooling to it as I went and understood more about imaging. (google steve chambers) I also bought a T adaptor for my DSLR camera.

The other benefit of the USB webcam is you can extend the leads and look at the sky from somewhere warm on your computer!

Also so as you get more accomplished in the future and possible upgrade your equipment you can always use the camera as a guide camera.

just my tuppence worth...

Cheers

Paul

[dark knight]

£80 will get you a new celestron neximage for planets, this can also be modded. there is a free software mod that flashes the chip to allow better control of shutter speeds etc. I just tried on ebay for the sp900c and none come up, but they are out there...the beauty of the celestron is its specifically a planetary imager from design up. meade do one as well..