DIY CCD camera

[Roo]

Hi
Have any of you successfully made a DIY CCD camera by hacking a HD (1080p) webcam into a focuser adaptor tube?
Andrew

[mswhin63 (Malcolm)]

I think there are plenty, although most are used mostly for Planetary captures and moon, while the only webcam I know is the Philips SPC900NC that has successfully modified for deep sky but the quality is not as good as DSLR or the higher end cameras.

[graphworlok (James)]

Yes - results here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tXzY4d2uO4

That clip was taken without motor engaged.

Its colour, kinda cheap (though expensive for a webcam), and decent FPS. Sensor is small, (4mmx3mm or so) so the majority of the light gathered is lost. I'd say, in order not to waste money, you are better suited with a camera that may look worse "on paper" going by the standard megapixel metrics given by manufacturers, and look for something with a sensor that utilise more of the available light your optics are gathering. This sensor could pick up the 4 or 5 brightest stars in the jewelbox, but even for a nebula as bright as orion, anyting other than a star was little more than noise.

Not too bad for planetary though, where sensor size and exposure capability is not such an issue.

[2stroke (Jay)]

The 1080p camera's are bs, they can only pull that using lossy compression codec which makes it useless for ap work were you want a lossless codec. The ms cinema and studio are the best to mod for planetary work and some people have got some nice results from them. Garry honis has done a nice guide and review here http://ghonis2.ho8.com/lifecam/lifecam1.html . As for ccd the old toucam is about the best and you mod them with a sony 618 for around 50 euro which makes them a great plantary imager , add a sc2 mod or usblx long expouser and you have a nice cheap deep space imager or guide cam

I'am preying to see usb3 webcams hit soon, the flea 3 is a usb3 astro cam and the tech is out there, its just waiting on ms and logitech to build a webcam thats sells at a price to make it worth it now.

[asimov (John)]

Imaging Source USB3's now available..

[2stroke (Jay)]

Originally Posted by asimov

Imaging Source USB3's now available..

That's good to know and a good sing usb3 webcams wont be far off

DMK 23U618640x4801201/4 "Sony ICX618ALACCDGloba
WOW

120FPS

Video formats @ Frame rate640x480 Y800 @ 120, 90, 60, 30, 15, 7.5, 3.75 fps
640x480 Y16 @ 120, 90, 60, 30, 15, 7.5, 3.75 fps

yer baby yer

[Roo]

Thanks all. I might experiment with an old 1.3MP webcam I have first. The USB3 cams look good.

Tell me, colour vs monochrome? I think I see where you're coming from...

Cheers
Andrew

[2stroke (Jay)]

Mono is best because of how the sensors recieve an image. With a colored sensor its takes 4 pixels to show a color pixel, 2 green 1 red and 1 blue. With a mono you use only 1 pixel and colours are made by using filters so you get a much higher definition image. The problem with mono's are you need a set of filters and a wheel/side, also with planets that spin fast you have to be quick to switch filters and can't gather the same number of frames as a color so you have less to stack. Colored ccd's have a huge advantage for planetary imaging because they can gather more frames in the same time but lose out in resolution to the mono's.

If planets are your target your best with a colored ccd with the fastest FPS you can get, highest res and a loseless codec. This will give you the best chance of getting good frames to stack and produce a nice colored image. Theres nothing wrong with mono's apart from the time you have and chance of getting good frames due to atmospheric change.

For DSO's, nebula ect is your target then go a mono though sooner or later you will probably want a higher res camera and at that stage and price bracket it may be a toss up of colored ccd/mono/dslr pending on your budget, skill and targets ect.

[wasyoungonce (Brendan)]

I picked up a Philips SPC900 in the IIS for-sale and have changed the colour sensor to a mono sony sensor. Same sensor but mono version.

Works ok but need to firmware flash it for RAW mono output. Apparently the "mono mod" should give around 3X the sensitivity of the colour sensor but now I need some 1.25" filters and wheel....should have thought of that hey!

Anyway ...I'll get that later.

[wasyoungonce (Brendan)]

Well.

SPC900NC now flashed to RAW output mono with WcRMAC software. Focus could be off because I used original lens but image taken in quite low light.

Attached is a capture with my colour SPC900NC...ok frame size is a little different but the change between resolution colour to mono...wow!

Posting up new thread on how to do this.