first half decent webcam pic

[raymo]

Spent the whole session messing about with webcams. Even with centreing the target with reticule EP, am totally unable to use barlow.
The screen just stays stubbornly black, even when the whole screen is bright white moon when not using the barlow. Baffled!!!!!!
I'm aware that webcam sensors are tiny, but this is ridiculous.
raymo

[Jon_hm (Jonathan)]

Hi Raymo - I share your angst. My webcam comes to focus close to a 7 mm eyepiece. So I set it up by putting in a 7 mm EP, focusing and getting the scope tracking with the object centered before swapping in the web cam. Some web cams have binning options so you would want to start with the highest binning number giving you the widest field of view. You can also crank up the exposure so that objects that are just out of field can be detected fron their glow. Hope this helps, FWIW I still cant get a decent DSLR picture and think the webcams are easier to use once you get over the object location hump.

Cheers

Jon

[raymo]

Thanks Jon, I'll try increasing the exposure. What I don't understand is
if my webcam covers only a small part of a large target like the moon, as
can be seen in my image, logically, with the webcam placed dead centre of the moon one would have to increase the magnification enormously
for it to move off the moon, and even more for the moon[or even it's
glow] to be out of the field altogether. On top of that, there is no sign of
the glow when making small movements of the scope in all directions.
I can see the problem with the planets, being so small, although I have
little trouble locating Mars or Saturn without the barlow, using the
reticule EP. I have marked the focus position with the barlow fitted in
daylight.
raymo

[Jon_hm (Jonathan)]

Thats a bit odd. If it was a planet you could imagine missing it or the change in focus making it invisible, but now that I think about it having the moon dissapear seems unusual. I regularly use 2 and 3 x barlows and do sometimes have problems because of changes in fl but havent had an issue with the moon. Having said that the neximage 5 is the only web cam I have spent much time using. Anyhow - nice moon pic .

[raymo]

Hi Jonathan, I can't fathom it. It's just weird.
raymo