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Disastrous first night with webcam

MorningMajor

By MorningMajor
in Imaging - Discussion

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MorningMajor

MorningMajor

Posted
Posted

After waiting 3 weeks for my flashed SPC880 to arrive and another week for the skies to clear it was with great enthusiasm that I ventured out last night for my first imaging attempt.....disaster

I just couldn't focus on anything - ok, the moon wasn't out which would have been a good target to start with

Tried Jupiter but just got a blur - I just couldn't focus in on it - again it was quite low and soon disappeared

Then tried a bright star - Beetlegeuse (sp?) but still nothing

Should I be able to focus on stars - or is it just for the moon/planets or am I making a real newbie mistake and have forgotten to do something, had the gain and exposure high - right or wrong?

As tomorrow night is meant to be clear, I will try again - any advice before that would be gratefully recieved.

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astromerlin

astromerlin

Posted
Posted

Sounds very much like my first experience. :rolleyes:

Best thing is to focus on a bright star, set the gain on the webcam to 80-100% and then carefully focus. If you are using a reflector then you should see diffraction spikes on bright stars and can use these to get to focus (long thin spikes)

You could also use a Batinov mask which works really well too.

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red dwalf

red dwalf

Posted
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sounds just like my first night out with my webcam a few years ago l.o.l

these are really only good on moon and planets,

what you need to do is align onto a planet or easier the moon then adjust the settings, if i remember correctly the gain needs to be up first to get the image onto the ccd then lower it to get some contrast, brightness set to about 50 and only 5 or 10 frames per second, there`s lots of info on the net to help with settings but there is an art to it

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brianb

brianb

Posted
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Wait for the moon to become available ... it's a great target to start with as it's hard to miss. Planets & stars can be hard to find, not only are they a small target but when out of focus the "donut" may be too diffuse to be easily spotted.

When you have the moon available, you can find how much focusing movement is needed & in what direction between the focus for your webcam and your "favourite" eyepiece, then use that knowledge to get very close to accurate focus when you mount your webcam. That plus carefully centering the target at high power before switching to the webcam should have you finding the elusive little b*gg*rs easily enough.

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dlp

dlp

Posted
Posted

I think you probably need an extension tube - an easy way to check is to slowly move the cam out of the diagonal or scope tube and watch the display. If it looks like it's going to focus then you need an extension (I found I had to pull my cam right out of the tube while keeping it aligned before I got focus)

David

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MorningMajor

MorningMajor

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Thanks for all the help - took some time out this afternoon and aimed the scope on some nearby treetops, then practised focussing the webcam - armed with my new found confidence I had another go this evening - Jupiter a no go as it's now dropping behind aforesaid trees by the time it's visible so centred on Rigel and hey I also managed to get it on the cam - tried some captures of that and the Trapezium Cluster in M42 - doubt if they'll be good enough to post here, but will process them tomorrow and see what I've got - anyway - at least I've got something!

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leenewtoastro

leenewtoastro

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Posted
At least I'm in good company - I know i won't get DSO's but should I be able to capture things like pleiades?

And on the focussing - I'm assuming I should be focussing "in" as if focussing on an object that is closer?

:rolleyes: i'm hoping you certainly can get DSO's! ????

i too was playing with the spc900 last night. i found exposure and gain had to be almost max to see anything on screen

as a nuub not sure if thats what you do to confirm its on the chip and then dial the exposure and gain down then begin capture and all will

come good in the stacking / processing after? i made the capture with expo and gain up so it was visable on screen.

i definately had those thin long spikes from stars and at first (guess) at processing the image did not produce anything nearly looking like a black background

with a tiny dot representing a star. it was more like black paper with a white bingo dabber dot.

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tbird

tbird

Posted
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Couldn't get Saturn in my spc900 last night, couldn't get it to focus on anything. Tried Jupiter earlier in the week, got an image but just appeared overexposed ( was early evening ). I not got any motor drive so by time got webcam on 'scope and fiddled with focus, object has gone.

More expense on the horizon.

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leenewtoastro

leenewtoastro

Posted
Posted
Couldn't get Saturn in my spc900 last night, couldn't get it to focus on anything. Tried Jupiter earlier in the week, got an image but just appeared overexposed ( was early evening ). I not got any motor drive so by time got webcam on 'scope and fiddled with focus, object has gone.

More expense on the horizon.

i started a help thread for this very reason . i have the same issues too

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alig46

alig46

Posted
Posted

Hi All

You all are doing better that me all I am getting is a fuzzy screen no image.

Some of you are saying to turn the gain up! how?

any other settings should I look at?

My scope is a SkyWatcher Skymax 127 SynScan AZ GOTO

using a SPC 880 webcam with the firmware flashed

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