Watchport/V2

[christos]

Hello everyone

First off I would like to thank everyone concerned for such a fantastic forum
I am an absolute beginner into the great hobby and have learnt so much y just reading the pages on this site

Being quite computer literate I have been looking into the addition of a webcam to my small 5" reflector and after several hours of searching I came across a 1.3 mp ccd webcam that looks the goods it is called a Watchport/V2 has anybody had any experience with this model any feed back would be great

Thanks again for the forum
Cheers
Christos

[stephenb]

Hi Christos, welcome to the forum.

I have not heard of them, but I found them on an internet search. I see no reason who you could not use one of these cameras as an inexpensive astro camera option.

However, may I suggest some more common options which have been used and proven by many amateurs astronomers, both in Australia and overseas?

Checkout Telescopes & Astronomy in South Australia. They sell the very well known and proven Phillip ToUcam SPC900NC http://www.telescopes-astronomy.com.au/toucam_philips.htm . Some quite reasonable results can be acheived from these little gems. They also sell the correct nose-piece adapter to fit a 1.25" focuser.

Webcams are really only used for lunar and planetary (and solar with the correct scope/filters) but you will be able to acheive some good results with it.

I don't know how much you have researched or your knowledge level so I apologise in advance if I'm telling you things you already know.

You wiill need a program to capture and stack images. The common ones are:

Registax: http://www.astronomie.be/registax/

k2ccdtools: http://www.pk3.org/Astro/index.htm?k3ccdtools.htm

http://www.telescopes-astronomy.com.au/toucam_philips.htm

Some resources online for you also to look through:

Oliver Pettenpaul's tutorial for the Phillips ToUcam: http://www.backyardvoyager.com/ToUcam740-a.html

Registax tutorials: http://www.russsscope.net/staxtutorial.htm and http://www.threebuttes.com/RegistaxTutorial.htm

I hope some of this helps.

Regards,

Stephen