[sheeny (Al)]

Can anyone else with a ToUcam with the long exposure mod maybe tell me what I'm doing wrong?

I took the scope out last night after the clouds disappeared, and as there was still some high cloud about I thought I'd just have a play with the ToUcam on long exposures and see how it goes. I didn't bother much with polar alignment, since I just wanted to get the feel of the camera and software, the conditions weren't ideal and I was using the toucam piggybacked on the scope through a Zuiko 50mm lens, thinking I'd try some wide field shots.

The camera doesn't seem to behave as I would expect. I expect that as the exposure time increases, the image should get brighter - if all other things stay the same. This didn't seem to happen I seem to get as good results from normal video mode as I get out of 5 minute exposures??!!

I played around with M42, the Pleiades, and the LMC with very poor results and as I said, I did a test with just normal video mode at the end and it was similar to what I've achieved on long exposure.

I was using K3CCDTools v2.4.9 last night, but I've downloaded version 3 today and been playing with it again to try to get a handle on it, but no change.

To avoid lots of questions...
I had the long exposure switch on long exposure on the camera;
I have tried the switch in the normal position as well today in case it was labelled back to front;
I am using the long exposure control in K3 to capture the long exposure images;
I have tried both manual and auto exposure control.

BTW I had no noticable star trails in my images, which may be luck, but it might also suggest that despite going through the motions of exposing for 5 minutes, say, it actually only collects light for a much shorter period.

Any ideas?

Al.