Webcam Astrophotography with a Dob

[iceman]

Hey guys.

On my to-do list i've said i'll write a how-to guide for astrophotography with a dob. Including afocal digicam stuff, as well as webcam astrophotography.

I haven't started on it yet, but Nortilus, ballaratdragons etc have started on the afocal route, and so would hopefully benefit from some of my experiences.. Also a response I wrote to a new webcam dob imager on CN had a lot of the hints + tips I would probably put in my how-to guide..

So here's part of my response to him.. it's not strictly just for webcam imaging with a dob, there's some points in there that may also be relevant for afocal digicam stuff.. anyway i'll post it here and it might make a start to my guide anyway.

Hopefully someone gets something out of it.

[Astroman]

Excellent guide there Mike, I tried photographing with my dob for the first time at prime focus, it really is a different world to afocal photography, not being able to look through the EP takes a bit of getting used to. I was using a very low quality quickcam there was noise lines all over the screen and I think the chips cover was scratched, I had lines over it. I was amazed at the magnification you get also, I have an 8" f7 scope and jupiter and saturn came out quite large. I also shot alpha centauri with the cam stars were really easy to seperate with quite alot of light between it.

I can't wait to get a toucam pro to get a clearer image.

[ballaratdragons]

Thanks Mike.

Much appreciated. As Myself and others venture out as beginners in Astrophotography we will need all the help we can from you and others that did it the hard way (hand-held digital camera).

There is so much to learn in this field and it is easy to get carried away with Laptops and TouCams etc.

I need to start simple and fumble my way through (as much as I would like to spend a zillion dollars and do it now).

If I rush it I probably won't enjoy it as much.

Again, Thanks for the help and patience.

[Jonathan]

I don't have a dob but that will help me now I've got my ToUcam ready to go. Thanks Mike. :)

[Astroman]

Hi Jonathan,

have you tried it through the ETX, should get some reasonable views with it.

[Jonathan]

G'day Astroman. Haven't tried it yet but I'll probably have a go in the next week or so. I've seen some pretty good pics on other websites done through an ETX so I've got an idea of what it's capable of. It will take alot of pratice to get it right I think!