Toucam error, need advice

[Dennis G]

Using the Toucam is very new and I'm still learning. Photographing the moon March 25- 07, I discovered that to capture the moon (part there of) it required the cross hairs of the finder, which was previously set central to the moon's cresent, using a 25 mm eyepiece, to be the width of the moon's cresent to its right. In my estimation that represents a large misalignment error and the reason I had so much trouble capturing Saturn a few nights previous.
Has any contributor experienced this? If so,can someone please advise how one can overcome the problem? It is most disappointing. What with a damaged driver disc and now this, it makes me wonder.

I must add at this juncture that I'm managing to get reasonal results with the imager and Registax, although my pictures when printed out, using a Lexmark laser B&W printer are not as exciting as when viewed on the computer monitor.

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi Dennis.

I don't believe that's a problem with the ToUcam, it's more a problem of aligning your finderscope with your ToUcam.

Once you get the object in the FOV of the Toucam (ie: can see it on the laptop screen), then adjust your finderscope alignment so it maches what you see on the laptop.

It's not so much of a big deal for the moon (cause it's so big anyway) but for Saturn etc it's essential to ensure the finderscope crosshairs match the middle of the ToUcam FOV.

Have you read my article?

Astrophotography with a Dob

It discusses this and many other problems

[davidpretorius]

mikes article is a must for toucam travels!

basically the toucam acts liek a 6mm eyepiece...so....

1. start out with a 25mm eyepiece, line up with a bright star with your finderscope.....
2. look thru eyepiece...is it in the middle?
3. if not move your scope so that the star is in the middle of the eyepiece, then go back to your finder and adjust that,
4. double check
5. move to a 12mm eyepice and repeat, making sure the star in the eyepiece is in the exact middle and then making sure the finderscope is also exactly in the middle.
6. move to a 5mm or 6mm eyepiece and repeat

At this stage you should be able to put in the Toucam, move to the finderscope, align with the object jupiter, saturn star whatever and it should be smack bang in the middle of the laptop screen.

have the toucam on auto settings to start with so everything is really bright and it makes it easier to find things.....after that, adjust settings...

[Dennis G]

Reply to Mike and Davidpertorious for their reply. I now realise it requires the alignment of the finder to be made with the higher magnification. I'm learning!

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

Thats Okay Dennis, asking question is a good way to learn. Although the answer maybe something completely different to what you expect. I am pretty sure many new users of Telescopes have done the same thing or similar. Good luck with your photography and hope we see some really good images from you soon