Webcam guiding? worth it

[CGolder]

Webcam guiding or not worth the hastle,

I have now setup my c6 with a piggyback etx60 on my lxd75 and its a nice light setup, i am planning to use phd to guide with a spc880 but i connected it all up and the picture was pure white, the guide scope is f4 60mm with the reducer. Anuone have some webcam recomended settings? or should i skip the hastle and get a proper guide cam?

Thanks

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[kookoo_gr]

my suggestion is to get a proper guide cam since the webcam chip is not sensitive enough to detect faint stars. you can guide with a webcam but only at bright enough stars and if you have set from the settings of the camera to full auto exposure

[lukebl]

I can guide perfectly well on stars down to, say, 6th magnitude with my unmodded SPC900 webcam, and there's always one of that magnitude somewhere nearby.

[CGolder]

What cam settings in phd do you use please? Gotta be worth seeing for myself? Thanks

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[Earl]

I must ry this some time... another one to add to the list.... :|

ah as i type Muse comes on the raido and all is good... random i know.

[Dave]

As long as you can move the guide scope around to pick up a bright star nearby, guiding is extremely easy with a Philips ToUCam webcam.

I use an 80mm refractor for guiding and it works perfectly with EQMOD and PHD with my EQ6.

Try focussing the webcam on a bright star first before you select your first target.

You will stand a better chance of seeing some of the fainter stars if they are in focus.

Dave

[lukebl]

What cam settings in phd do you use please?

I adjust the guidescope visually with an eyepiece first, to get a suitable star in the centre of the field. I then swap the eyepiece for the webcam, and then re-focus.

I generally have the webcam at the slowest shutter speed, and adjust gain so that the backgound is reasonably dark but the star is still clear. In PHD I use the 'Star profile' to fine-tune the shutter speed and gain to get the best exposure.

If the view is pure white, as you said earlier, that's possibly because you've got the gain too high. However, I do have a different guide scope than yours (400mm FL @ f/5), so your settings may be different. However, you will have a larger field of view so, in theory, you should have more stars to choose from.

[Glider]

Webcam guiding works fine for me.