Webcam Advice

[ghewett]

Hi All

Having had a passing interest in astronomy most of my life I've decided to take it a bit more seriously. Just learning the sky with some bins and Stellarium at the moment and haven't decided which telecsope to go for yet. I'd quite like to try some web cam imaging when I do so I was wondering what would be a good webcam to try, also what are the pitfalls awaiting me.

Are there any commercially available webcams or do you have to modify them yourself? I'd be interested to know what others have done.

Thanks

Garry

[todd8137]

morgans do a philips spc880 and will flash it for a few quid tospc900 specs they cheap as well not sure if a cam post there link google morgan computers o and welcome as well

[PeterW]

Can get them off ebay, you need to buy an eyepiece adapter to use them, free software. I got an SPC900NC... ebay do them,

PEterW

[kentronix]

as above, either an spc900nc or the spc880 from morgans and flash it (upgrades it to spc900).

One reason is these cams are cheap and extremely good images can be produced (moon and planets). The other reason is the amount of people out there using them, the amount of support available from users and the amount of software designed for use with them.

[ghewett]

Thanks for the advice - and the welcome. I've just ordered the webcam and the adapter. I can have it ready at least for when I finally decide which telescope to buy.

Garry

[nightfisher]

welcome, you will need a capture software like craterlet (free) and a stacking software like registax )free), oh and a laptop is handy

[wilso31]

hi guys n gals can anyone reccomend software that I could use with my spc900 to capture images of the planets and moon . preferably decent free software? also what software i need to finalise images sorry for being a complete noob

Mick

[kentronix]

There is a fair bit of choice but I have been using sharpcap to capture and the free version of k3ccdtools or registax to stack the images. They will pop up if you google them.

I finish off in photoshop (not free) because I happen to own a copy, I think GIMP is quite decent though, and free.

[wilso31]

There is a fair bit of choice but I have been using sharpcap to capture and the free version of k3ccdtools or registax to stack the images. They will pop up if you google them.

I finish off in photoshop (not free) because I happen to own a copy, I think GIMP is quite decent though, and free.

thank you

Mick

[ghewett]

I've downloaded smartcap,registax and gimp and they all look decent enough but I've only really messed about with pics taken with my Canon EOS 300D so far.

I've also downloaded a thing called DeepSkyStacker which seems to do something similiar to registax

Garry

[brantuk]

Use DSS for deep sky objects (galaxies, nebulas, clusters, etc). For planets and moon use Registax

[Bizibilder]

You may also want a filter of some sort to block the end of the adaptor and prevent dust getting onto the camera sensor (as you remove the camera lens for astro work). If you use a ir/uv filter it will help by reducing the unwanted infra-red light that webcam sensors are sensitive to.