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Old 12-03-2011, 08:46 PM
stattonb (Statton)
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Attempt at using a webcam to do imaging

Hi guys so i thought id give it a go as i dont have the proper setup for imaging i used a webcam and regstax to come up with my first attemp at imaging .
Video

SATURN: http://www.starrycafe.com/vid1.mpg

MOON: http://www.starrycafe.com/vid3.wmv

Image - abit bright i know can anyone recommend good software for editing images apart from Photoshop.
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Last edited by stattonb; 13-03-2011 at 09:25 AM.
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Old 12-03-2011, 09:09 PM
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ballaratdragons (Ken)
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Statton, that is actually quite good!

Lower the contrast a tad to get rid of the really bright area or change to a faster framerate.

What webcam is it?
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Old 12-03-2011, 09:42 PM
stattonb (Statton)
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its just a cheap $25 cam from bigw,only got a cheap one to test it out to see what the images would be like. planing on getting a better one soon hopefully, i dont know much about imaging so i will do what ya said and test it out,hopefully i can get better at it
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Old 13-03-2011, 09:58 AM
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renormalised (Carl)
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Nice attempt

Gain looks a little too high. Lowering it will reduce the contrast in your image. Also, to get a better shot of planets like Saturn, use your barlow by inserting the webcam where the eyepiece would normally go. It will increase the size of your planets by quite a bit!!!.

You will need to play around with the gain and such to get your images looking right. It's also important to figure out what your optimum capture rate is for the night your shoot on. The clearer and steadier the night, the lower the capture rate you can use. You'll generally find, though, that your rate will be around 10-15fps for most nights. Sometimes though, a high frame rate....20-30fps, will give you a much steadier set of images and will allow you to control the gain better.

Grab yourself a flip mirror...these allow you to keep an eye on your target whilst also having your camera at the ready to take piccies. Saves having to insert and remove various eyepieces when trying to focus and centre your target.
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Old 13-03-2011, 10:02 AM
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renormalised (Carl)
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If you want a really good webcam for astropics, just go here and PM Peter... http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=70573

They're modded Philips SPC900N's. You can not only take pics of the planets and the Moon, but the mod done to the camera will allow you to take long exposure shots of DSO's, so you can snap pics of galaxies, nebs etc etc, as well
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Old 13-03-2011, 10:14 AM
stattonb (Statton)
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thanks for the tips i will put them into practice,looked at the cam ya suggested and will get one for sure,i did try a barlow (i have a X3) but had abit of trouble ill give all your suggestions a go and report back with how i went
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Old 26-03-2011, 10:23 AM
stattonb (Statton)
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Afew more pics been practising with RegiStax 5 but still need abit more practise lol.
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Old 27-03-2011, 09:58 AM
mikerr (Michael)
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Nice images.

Do you have a couple of photos of the webcam and how it is connected to the scope?
I have a low end Logitech ball shaped webcam that I want to mate to an old Celestron 8.

Rgds

Michael
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Old 27-03-2011, 11:17 AM
stattonb (Statton)
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yea ill post some pics soon i used a logitech to i just took the lens off the webcam and used a film canaster as an adapter.
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Old 18-04-2011, 01:54 PM
stattonb (Statton)
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Another attempt of imaging Saturn with my webcam,as for you question "Mikerr" just unscrew the lens of the webcam and use a old fil canister or unscrew an old eyepiece and take it ti the front of the webcam and your all set.
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Old 18-04-2011, 02:50 PM
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renormalised (Carl)
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Now, what you need to do is get a Powermate and whack the webcam onto the end of that. Your saxon barlow might show a bit too much CA, so you need to get the good stuff for increasing your image scale. Saturn will come up nicely with the increased FL due to the Powermate (or even a really good barlow).
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Old 18-04-2011, 02:54 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stattonb View Post
Afew more pics been practising with RegiStax 5 but still need abit more practise lol.
Those are some seriously wicked shots for $25!
See if you can find an app that does deconvolution - it can do wonders for your images, especially if your data is good. I attached an example I did with ST.

Next step is creating mosaics - simply let the moon drift by and stitch the individual frames together for big high-res moon maps. There's so much fun to be had with just a simple webcam!
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Old 18-04-2011, 03:30 PM
stattonb (Statton)
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thanks for the comments, planning to get a philps ucam so i can do some better imaging. saving for a powermate all i have atm is a x3 barlow.
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