Best Photo's on........

[Xeelee]

Which camera technique do you use????

Webcam
Digital SLR
Film SLR
CCD

Because I am thinking about getting one but need to know what to get.
:scared:

[aaronsadler]

Good question, I need to get one too. :confuse2:

I'm tossing up between digital slr and ccd

[acropolite]

DSLR, It's the most flexible, but I've also got an LPI (sorta webcam)...

[davidpretorius]

toucam (webcam), and i would suggest for you as well as it does not look like you have tracking? and cheaper too!

[aaronsadler]

Dave, some questions.


How much was your toucam?
Where did you buy it from?
What else do you need to set it up?
and how good is the quality of shots it takes?
:)

[davidpretorius]

$140 for the unit & $45 for the adapter to replace the lens and put inot the focusser & $69 for the universal adapter to attach to most eyepieces under 2", $145 for the long exposure modification

http://www.telescopes-astronomy.com.au/toucam_philips.htm is were i bought it from, they can do the long exposure mod

if you have no tracking then you end up taking a video as the object sales by

some videos are here

you then stack them in registax and form an image.
some images of deep space here http://www.precons.com/iis/gallery/Nontracking/Deep%20Space/

and my best jupiter so far http://www.precons.com/iis/gallery/Nontracking/Solar%20System/20050804-jupiter_0002-wave.jpg

tonights moon shots were hard due to windy conditions

a moon video which has lost alot in quality due to posting on the internet
http://www.precons.com/iis/gallery/Nontracking/Solar%20System/moon-20050915-200x_001.wmv

a picture extracted from the original of copernicus crater here

http://www.precons.com/iis/gallery/Nontracking/Solar%20System/moon-20050915_200x_001.jpg



Mike salway (iceman) has done brilliant work on the planets with his toucam and a barlow for extra magnification, he also use some tracking though.
Mikes work shows how good the quality can be with a toucam, and i am waiting to finish motorizing my telescope so i have tracking and can try long exposure shots to see how good the toucam is against say a Canon 300d that a lot the guys use that costs $1500.

I would recommend it!

[iceman]

Xeelee, what telescope have you got, and what mount have you got it on?

Can't really answer the question until we know that, and also what do you plan to take photos of?

Also, do you plan to use it for daytime use or just astrophotography?

[aaronsadler]

Dave, thanks for the info.

I am either going to buy the toucam or the canon 350d.

Is the toucam better than the 350d or not, i'm not worried about the price because I love photography so it's not only going to be used for astro work.

I am eventually going to purchase a meade 12 inch rcx 400 so it's not only going to be used on my genesis.

What do u guys recommend.

[[1ponders]]

Aaron, they are used for two totally different areas of photography really. Yes you can do planetary imaging with a 350D but the ToUcam will do it much better 99 times out of 100. A modified ToUcam will take DSO images but the 350D will again leave it for dead. If you're going to be interested in both aspects of astrophotography, get both. The ToUcam plus adapter is only around $190, around 10% - 15% of the cost of the 350D

[aaronsadler]

Thanks, thought that might be the case. :thumbsup:

[davidpretorius]

i am yet to try the modded toucam with dso's with tracking. starcamp at end of october or the next new moon with a guided lx90 will be great chance to try the toucam at long exposures to see how it compares to a canon.

i will keep you updated on this one.

but i agree, get both

[aaronsadler]

Before I go out and grab one, as I have never used one of these before, how does it compare to a the meade ccd camera.
http://www.meade.com/dsi/overview.html

I have no idea how these things work so please give me some advice.
:shrug:

[davidpretorius]

very similiar, except this is a dedicated astronomy tool. it has extra cooling to get rid of the noisy pixels etc.

the toucam is 140 for toucam +45 for eyepiece adapter +140 for long exposure mod = $350

the new meade deep sky imager is around $680.

there is a great write up in the current aussie sky and telescope!

you basically can run these in two modes (prime focus and afocal) prime focus is where you take out your eyepiece from the scope and also the lens off the toucam. replace the lens with an adapter the same width as an eyepiece and put it in. this is great for planetary and high magnification

afocal, you keep the lens in the toucam and focus it on the image formed at the eyepiece, just like taking a picture thru the eyepiece.

What sort of scope do you have or are looking to get and in what time frame?

[davidpretorius]

sorry, have looked at your signature!

[Xeelee]

Just for astrophotography and I have recently just purchased new telescope which is a Meade LXD75 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain. (Was really difficult in making a decision between LXD and Celestron C8-S Advanced.