Stars & Webcams

[Kevdan]

Hi All,

I was out last night but too late for jupiter and too early for saturn, So I tried to image the orion nebula with my spc900 and craterlet but it wouldnt even show a star let alone the nebula, I know the cam is working cause I checked it and made a bit of a recording of the grandkids the other day using craterlet, (yes I have taken off the lens and put the adapter on) But when using it last night nothing came on the screen at all, What am I doing wrong.

Kev.

[yeti monster]

Does it have the long exposure mod?

[Marcus daniel]

Ideally, these cams ie: spc900, or the neximager, are planetary/moon cams. They are great at doing these sort of images as they are quite light dependent. Imaging deep sky objects require a long exposure in order for the light to be gathered for example, a dslr would do the job. I thiink there are mods that can be made to allow these cam to do long exposure but im sure in saying the cost is around 160 ish. This being a good deposit for dslr cam, i dont know how the results would be, maybe somebody else will add to this but at least it is a start for you kev.

[Kevdan]

Does it have the long exposure mod?

There is a long exposure button but how does this work ?

[leenewtoastro]

on the cam or in your software?

the spc900 needs a diy/after manufacture mod involving some soldering and electronics,cabling.

couple of option iirc usb or serial.

[Kevdan]

on the cam or in your software?

the spc900 needs a diy/after manufacture mod involving some soldering and electronics,cabling.

couple of option iirc usb or serial.

in that case then it doesnt have one.

[MorningMajor]

I had similar problems myself the other night see this thread

I would guess it's down to alignment - the FOV of the webcam is similar to a 6mm EP so not a lot of room for error

[Kevdan]

Thanks,

So Im not the first and possibly not the last to have problems, So I just need a few clear nights and play with settings to see what happens, When we eventually get clear skies and I get any results I'll post them up so other people can use and improve on.

Kev