Lifecam HD & Magnification

[Starblazer]

I have just taken reciept of a a Lifecam HD and modded it as some have here for astro imaging.

I have a few questions

Firstly what would be the best filters to get for this webcam?

Secondly, when I had it on the moon lastnight through my 250px, I was only able to see a portion of the moon, it was way too magnified for what I was expecting, does anyone have any idea's why this is?

I've looked for magnification reduction and such but could see nothing.

Also, would this be suitable as a guidecam?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[jgs001]

If the IR filter is in the lens cell you removed, I'd get an IR filter. The image size is partially dependent on the sensor size. As a rough guide (and it's very rough), a vga webcam has a crop factor of about 8.5x (meaning multiple the focal length by that much to get the FOV) and acts at about the same scale as a 6.5mm ep. If the sensor is bigger, then it'll be a longer focal length ep and a smaller crop factor. The close in view is where mosaicing of the moon comes in, you shoot sequences of video covering the lunar surface, process them all and merge them into one larger image.

I can't comment on the guidecam, sorry, it may work fine in that role.

[Starblazer]

Cheers mate, Appreciate the help