1st ever Mars webcam image (quickcam 4000 pro)

[Space Cowboy]

After two previous fruitless sessions failing to even get a focussed image (other than a grey fuzzy ball) finally had some success with my logitech quickcam 4000 pro. I'm hoping things will get easier when the UV/IR filter i've ordered arrives. When i first imaged the moon with the webcam i thought it was so much easier than afocal with a digital cam until i tried planets! Just could not get any image when i inserted a barlow....turns out it was so out of focus it was almost invisible last night i detected a faint ghostly circle and realised it was Mars! Even with the settings turned to max brightness.

I'm using a 10" screen netbook..i guess a bigger screen would make focussing easier. Anyhow the only way i could get an image large enough to see detail for focussing was to insert a star diagonal and 2x barlow. Below is the result. Was worried about having it too bright and over exposed and have produced too dark an image. Took 2000 frames at 9fps used astrocapture and selected higher fps but the cam would only do 9 ? Is it not possible to change frame rates with a quickcam 4000 pro?

Hopefully using the IR/UV filter will produce better contrast and colour.

stacked over 500 frames at 90% in registax...increased brightness in Paint.net. Scope Skymax 127

[barkis]

A pretty poor attempt to lift it a bit SC.

Ron.

[Space Cowboy]

SC?