Toucam and Mac question

[Leedsgreen]

Dear All,

I would like to buy a webcam for my nephew to use on his scope. However, whilst I use a SPC900NC on my Windows XP laptop, my nephew has a Mac and I'm unsure about compatibility. From search on the internet, my sense is that Macs struggle with SPC900NC but they seem OK with Toucam Pro (i.e. 740K and 840K). Can anyone confirm either way?

Thanks for any help,

Nick

[rblunden]

Hello Nick

I can't help, I'm afraid. I'm a Mac user myself, new to astronomy, and would like to know how to use a webcam for astrophotography with a Mac. I will follow this thread with interest.

Good luck!

[mattlane]

OK, I'm running Macs and have been doing planetary imaging with an SPC900NC (same driver i believe as the Toucam) i've not managed to get ti working with the Mac and have resorted to using bootcamp to install windows on my mac.

This link may be of use.

Webcam Astrophotography on the Mac - Review

I struggled and struggled to get the spc900 to work on my mac and failed, hence why i'm using windows on it. I can then use wxAstrocapture to capture movies (for planets) and then i use registax to process these. It's annoying yes, having to resort to a backward OS but i rolled with the punches.

My best advice would be to get a copy of XP (don't even bother with Vista or Windows 7 - keep it simple) and install this on the mac (using bootcamp) then ONLY install the apps you need for imaging (wxastro, registax etc...). Do not set automatic updates to happen, always choose what you install - never update any hardware driver as this almost always leads to the blue screen of death, or a fight to roll it back in safe mode.

You could always try and use Virtual PC, or one of the other apps that runs windows in a window (but it will be slower and less responsive) on your mac.

The PC applications (for capture and processing) are fairly easy to use, and because of the volume of users support online is very good. And because 99% of the cameras we use were made for PCs they are pretty much guaranteed to work and finding drivers is easy.

I've only been imaging for about 5-6 months now and have managed some good results with a very small spend. If you need help just ask.

Matt

[Leedsgreen]

Matt,

Thanks very much for your helpful reply. Much appreciated. Will give Virtual PC a go first and take it from there.

Cheers,

Nick