ToUcam

[beren]

Greetings follow astronomers seeking information and experiance on the use of the ToUcam PRO11 PCV84ok and accessories {ie:IR badder filter,thread adapter etc} as supplied and currently on special from a SA outlet http://www.telescopes-astronomy.com....am_philips.htm . Would the modded version be useful for guiding? whats the min PC requirments to run the cam?anyone tried the eyepiece projection method with the the Toucam? Cheers

[iceman (Mike)]

Yes - get the adapter
Yes - get an IR blocking filter
Modded - Don't know, David P and Ken have these but they don't use them for guiding. Paul Ponders has just got a DSI for guiding because it's apparently more sensitive for that use, but that may be verse a normal ToUcam not a modded one.
You don't need a grunty PC to use a ToUcam, they only use a USB 1 port. But the better the computer,the less likely it is to drop frames.

Gary uses EP projection with the ToUcam.

HTH

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Hi Stuart. I've only been using the normal ToUcam for guiding and seriously it works a treat. Up until a fortnight ago I was using an old T20 IBM Thinkpad, and it did everything I needed it to do with the ToUcam. If you've got the lsmandy guiderings you will have no problem finding a star "usually". I'll let you know how the ToUcam goes with eyepiece projection in the next fortnight or so when Mars is available at a more civilised time. The cheaper IR filter that you can buy through Tele-Astr is a yucky blue colour and I don't use it, though I will try it on Mars to see how it goes (will need to do a bit of PS magic to get rid of the colour). I think Mike has the more expensive one from the same site. What's it like Mike?

Mike, the DSI is going to serve multiple purposes as well as guiding. Education, imaging and keeping up with h0ughy and Striker. I think I'm up on both of them with mounts, but I think Strikers winning in the camera department and h0ughy's winning in the OTA department. I wonder how much a 16" RC and Sbig ST-2000 XM would cost (need a wife shooting husband icon )

[davidpretorius]

my f5 10" fl1250 gs reflector with the 2" crayford refused to do any eyepiece projection with the toucam. could not get any focus at all.

Matt from T&A was at a loss as well. Seems to work well that eyepiece projection unit in refractors, but not my reflector.

Also the t thread adaptor for the toucam would not work with digi t to produce a focussed image. ie when you literally screw the t thread onto your eyepiece and then straight into the toucam without the lens.

No-one seems to know why, Matt has machined the t thread down and machined the eyepieces down to make sure that the lens of the eyepiece is really close to the ccd of the toucam, he offered me this, but every eyepiece i owned would have had to be machined!

I think it was bert that suggested going the other way, have 95 - 140 mm between eyepiece and ccd, but again starting to get expensive.

the williams optics digiscope at $69 gives me low mag for long exposures, and the prime focus adapter will give a 5 or 6mm fl for planets. I think i am covered!

I have installed the raw colour mod, which really tightened up the stars, so i would say yes you could get away with the exposure modded at a say 1/10 of a sec exposure for guiding. but any more than that and you are you starting to be too slow for response for guiding??? i can't guide so i don't know???

the minimum requirement are more for the software that comes with it. there are imaging this and that, which at the end of the day, if you have photoshop, don't bother installing anything else.

just a thought, for the long exposure to work the software needs the parallel port to send two signals to the toucam to say "stay on" for 2 seconds etc. the image comes back up the usb port. now for guiding, i would not think you would find guide software that would integrate well with the parallel port and usb. K3ccd does for imaging part, but in the guide section, i have seen no setting for the printer port!!!

you may have to write your own.

I have started, but i will be 6 - 12 months before i have integrated tracking, guiding, long exposure etc etc in one imaging software program!

food for thought.

At star camp, i am having a big hitout on the toucam with some of the tracked scopes hopefully, so i can answer more questions then

[beren]

Thanks Mike/Paul and Davo {cheers for the info mate}appreciate the advice , I'm set on the Toucam i just cant seem to draw more out of the LPI but the dual purpose of guiding has me undecided , the modded toucam is a good 130 bucks more and just from a guiding scenario would i have that much advantage over the stock one or even the LPI ....

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

I guess it would depend on the PE of your mount to a certain degree. If it doesn't have good PE and requires checking and adjusting by the autoguiding software quite frequently, then a longer exposure time isn't much of a benefit as your mount might have moved to far before a correction is made.

If you've got good PE then you can take longer exposures and use fainter stars.