Embarrassing Jupiters webcam clinic

[chris285]

It's not the focus as I've had a really poor image already, it just stops picking up light so I can immediately take out the webcam and shine it over my phone and I pickup nothing

[DrRobin]

Hi Chris,

I have the same camera and a later Asus and think I have seen the same as you. I think my problem was the wireless was switched on and the Asus tried to download a later driver or a windows update, pausing the image. Of course there was no updated driver, but by the time it realised the picture had gone and only came back after a reboot.

If you have an Internet connection I would try switching it off before imaging.

I doubt it is temperature related, most electronics are fine down to below zero degrees C and when it is powered it keeps itself warm.

BTW, when the image on the SPC dies, does the Asus internal cam still work?

[chris285]

Not sure as I think it's been disabled, but will give it a try so thanks for the suggestion

[AvochAndy]

Ok...here goes....

Attached image is a rather poor attempt at Jupiter, and the webcam settings I used. Webcam is a newly acquired Orion Starshoot iv, coupled to a celestron C8, without Barlow attachment. I think I have made a number of rookie errors, but a critique and advice would be welcome.

Camera Settings were:

Frame Divisor=1

Resolution=1280x1024

Frame Rate (fps)=10.00

Colour Space / Compression=RGB24

Exposure=4

Brightness=0

Contrast=103

Hue=164

Saturation=147

Sharpness=0

Gamma=75

Capture 19_12_2011 19_35_47.bmp

[aussi skywatcher]

Hi, just found this thread - interesting, I have recently started doing a bit of astro photography and mainly Jupiter and the moon. Jupiter has been a challenge but I have attached a copy of my best so far. it was taken through my 8" Skywatcher with a venus 2 web cam (ebay), about 270 frames with about 50% being used, processed using Castrator to centralize the image, then registax to stack etc and finally some fairly basic work in photoshop. I have a Phillips 880 (flashed) but am having some problems with it - just dont seem to be able to get a decent image from it - any ideas?

Cheers Paul

[ponytale]

hi chris 285 and all , just a few things i have noted along the way regarding web cams, Skype can sometimes intefere with some other webcam programs if it is still running in the background, also switch off screen savers, and powersaving modes which may try toput lappy to sleep to save power when batterys are depleting on laptops, also daisy chained and too long usb leads (max 5m) can be an issue , there are longer "active" usb leads available, last but not least some anti virus programs can start scans and check for viri when the lappy is idle as can back up software .

windows 7 users

i don't know if this really makes any difference but no harm done if you right click properties on your sharpcap capture folder, then customize , then choose optimize forvideo files or pictures to suit your needs.

clear skies !!

Tony

[chris285]

Will have a look at the power saving as i know that has kicked in at times as well so will sort that, i know skype is not on the netbook so that is not an issue but i will make sure i don't use the usb extender i have and try this all out

[Space Cowboy]

Ok...here goes....

Attached image is a rather poor attempt at Jupiter, and the webcam settings I used. Webcam is a newly acquired Orion Starshoot iv, coupled to a celestron C8, without Barlow attachment. I think I have made a number of rookie errors, but a critique and advice would be welcome.

Camera Settings were:

Frame Divisor=1

Resolution=1280x1024

Frame Rate (fps)=10.00

Colour Space / Compression=RGB24

Exposure=4

Brightness=0

Contrast=103

Hue=164

Saturation=147

Sharpness=0

Gamma=75

Thats not a bad image Andy. Not familiar with your camera, there does not seem to be a gain setting? I'm assuming you used sharpcap? I know with the philips webcams and imaging source cameras gamma needs keeping fairly low (under 20%) Not sure whether your gamma setting is too high. If gamma is too high you will lose contrast though your image may not be focussed sharp or your scope may not be collimated exactly and seeing may have been poor its hard to tell.

Maybe brightness behaves like gain on this camera? Worth trying higher brightness and lower gamma.

[Space Cowboy]

Hi, just found this thread - interesting, I have recently started doing a bit of astro photography and mainly Jupiter and the moon. Jupiter has been a challenge but I have attached a copy of my best so far. it was taken through my 8" Skywatcher with a venus 2 web cam (ebay), about 270 frames with about 50% being used, processed using Castrator to centralize the image, then registax to stack etc and finally some fairly basic work in photoshop. I have a Phillips 880 (flashed) but am having some problems with it - just dont seem to be able to get a decent image from it - any ideas?

Cheers Paul

Nice detail on that image Paul. You really need a lot more frames though to smooth out the image.

Without seeing your Philips 880 images or settings its hard to say whats going wrong.

You should have Gain above 50%, gamma at 0 and using either sharpcap or vxastrocapture to capture the video set the shutter speed so the exposure histogram is around 70% full . Take a 3 min avi at 10fps giving you 1800 frames and stack the best 500-1000.

[AvochAndy]

Thats not a bad image Andy. Not familiar with your camera, there does not seem to be a gain setting? I'm assuming you used sharpcap? I know with the philips webcams and imaging source cameras gamma needs keeping fairly low (under 20%) Not sure whether your gamma setting is too high. If gamma is too high you will lose contrast though your image may not be focussed sharp or your scope may not be collimated exactly and seeing may have been poor its hard to tell.

Maybe brightness behaves like gain on this camera? Worth trying higher brightness and lower gamma.

Thanks for your advice there. The scope is as well collimated as I can get it, but seeing was not to great, that's for sure, and the frost on the corrector plate was not helping either! I suspect you are spot on about the gamma setting. Scouring the web, the consensus is for a low gamma setting, so I will have another bash once the skies clear (Whenever that may be!). The image was indeed captured using Sharpcap, and is a stack of 200/1800 using Registax.

[moxican]

Hello everyone I think it's a great idea to start this thread. I am using now a 10" Meade SCT with moded SPC900. My problem is that in a random pattern my images get artifacts. Sometimes they do sometimes they don't. Especially if I put Barlow in the way. I have TV 2x Barlow and TV 2.5x Powermate. Artifacts appear completely random. Would a IR/UV cut filter help? I am unable to attach picture here for some reason

[Space Cowboy]

Hello everyone I think it's a great idea to start this thread. I am using now a 10" Meade SCT with moded SPC900. My problem is that in a random pattern my images get artifacts. Sometimes they do sometimes they don't. Especially if I put Barlow in the way. I have TV 2x Barlow and TV 2.5x Powermate. Artifacts appear completely random. Would a IR/UV cut filter help? I am unable to attach picture here for some reason

An IR/UV filter is needed but without seeing your image I'm only guessing as to what is causing the artifacts. What settings did you use? The SPC900 works best at 10fps anything faster can produce onion ring artifacts from the video compression. These rings are also produced if Gain is too low or gamma too high.

[tich]

Hi all tonight I've been outside trying to capture Jupiter for a 3rd time using my flashed Philips SPC 880 webcam. I am using a skywatcher 200P on an EQ5 synscan mount & I am using Sharpcap to capture the image. No matter what settings I'm using all I seem to get is an over exposed image.

This was tonights image;

I get lovely views with the eyepiece & I was seeing some nice detail of the cloud bands, but as soon as I placed the webcam in the 2x barlow lense thats all I can manage to get. I had the scope set in the back garden which backs onto fields so although it's not completely dark due to light pollution it's not to bad.

I will add that I'm completely new to all this stargazing so please be gentle!!!

[Leigh]

My first attempt at Jupiter with an SPC900 was a white circle as well.

I tried again tonight but this time I reduced the exposure. I used my 150 reflector on a very unstable EQ2 blown around in the wind!

The settings were recorded in Sharpcap:

[Philips SPC 900NC PC Camera]

Frame Divisor=1

Resolution=640x480

Frame Rate (fps)=10.00

Colour Space / Compression=YUY2

Exposure=-8

Brightness=64

Contrast=32

Saturation=11

Gamma=15

ColorEnable=255

BacklightCompensation=0

Gain=23

I played around a bit in photoshop but might have gone too far with it.

I have a long way to go.

Leigh

[aussi skywatcher]

Hi, I have been having the same sort of problems recently with the same camera, I think you might have got the gain setting a little high, I have found that keeping it as low as possible it certainly helps, maybe the color enable could do with lowering somewhat. I am no expert believe me I just keep playing around with settings etc until I get a picture that works. Do you use Registax to process the Avi file, if you do have you used the wavelet settings that are available on the last screen before you save the image - these settings really bring out the detail but you need to experiment with them - there is a lot of info on this forum on this subject - I guess you just have to trawl through it all.

Cheers Paul

[tich]

Thanks for the tips so far.

I've just had a fiddle with the settings in sharpcap tonight but for some reason I can't alter the gamma setting. It is ticked but it wont let me untick it so I can move it to 15 at the minute it's on 21. I haved saved all the settings for now so the next time we get a clear sky I'll try it out although I'm guessing every cam is going to be slightly different anyway. Does anyone know how I can alter the gamma setting?

As for the gain setting I am sure I had everything on quite a low setting & still Jupiter appeared to be really bright. I know as a webcam it works fine so it's just getting my head round these settings & how to alter them.

[aussi skywatcher]

Hi, when your camera is plugged (in Sharpcap) click on options and then scroll down to Video Capture filter - this opens up the camera driver dialogue and you should be able to reset all the default setting here -has worked for me - have fun

Cheers Paul

[damp owl]

My first attempt at Jupiter tonight with SPC900. Although its not great I am quite pleased. Any suggestions to improve this greatfully received.

http://stargazerslounge.com/members/damp-owl-albums-jupiter-picture14959-jupiter1.gif

Although there I can see cloud banding, there is little else in the way of detail. I ran this for a 30 seconds @ 10fps (not long enough??), ran through registax and enhanced in Gimp.

Adam.

[tich]

Hi, when your camera is plugged (in Sharpcap) click on options and then scroll down to Video Capture filter - this opens up the camera driver dialogue and you should be able to reset all the default setting here -has worked for me - have fun

Cheers Paul

Thanks for that Paul, I did go in there messing around with the settings last night but I couldn't get the gamma to work. It never occured to me to set everything to default . I've managed to adjust all the settings in sharpcap now so just waiting for that clear night to try it out again. Fingers crossed it will be soon!

[damp owl]

Played around with the settings in Registax and GIMP, and have managed to improve the image signficantly from the same AVI as above.

[aussi skywatcher]

HI there, its starting to look good, Its amazing what you can pull out of a picture when you start to experiment with all the different settings - the wavelets in registax is an area that you can spend much time doing this - keep up the good work,

Paul

[drewk1]

My latest effort:

I now have motors on my EQ5 so can use the TAL x 3 Barlow.

Conditions didn't seem to be too good but certainly a marked improvement on my previous efforts.

[tich]

Finally I got some detail on my Jupiter image. Ok it's not as detailed as some but then all I did was stack it using registax & that's it for now. I'm sure I could probably do more with it if I fiddled about with it but for now I'm quite happy.

[aussi skywatcher]

Hi Tich, you have done ok, hope you dont mind but I played around with your 3rd photo - there's heaps of detail in it - I just played with the wavelet setting in registax and hey presto look what you got - I have been unable to get this detail so far with my Phillips 880 webcam - would you mind sharing the setting if you have them.

Cheers Paul

[tich]

Hi Paul I did use one of these 2 settings when I captured it sorry I can't remember which one it was not off the top of my head. I can't believe how much detail you managed to get from that image I will have to have a mess around with Registax another time.

[Philips SPC 900NC PC Camera]

Brightness=64

Contrast=32

Saturation=0

Gamma=0

ColorEnable=255

BacklightCompensation=0

Gain=39

Exposure=-8

Resolution=640x480

Frame Rate (fps)=10.00

Colour Space / Compression=I420

second settings

[Philips SPC 900NC PC Camera]

Frame Divisor=1

Resolution=640x480

Frame Rate (fps)=10.00

Colour Space / Compression=YUY2

Exposure=-8

Brightness=64

Contrast=32

Saturation=11

Gamma=15

ColorEnable=255

BacklightCompensation=0

Gain=23