How to use a webcam for astrophotography ?

Thanks folks- focusing is still a problem, but I'm getting there. I took this picture with my scope- it was and isn't great- but bare in mind that it's a small scope: etx-70.
Half an hour to focus you say? Maybe this is where I'm going wrong. The image below took every last scrap of Photoshop knowledge I have to get a decent result , and every scrap of decency I have not to go too far and give you a 'fake' image

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That's not bad Dave.
Was that woth or without a barlow?

That was without the Barlow- cloud was popping in and out. Unfortunately I only got the one shot of it before I had to move indoors again. The image was still quite blurry, but I'm getting the hang of using Photoshop to adjust astronomy images. I read that web book you gave me on the subject and it gave me a few ideas. I think that K3ccd software did the trick also.

Thanks for all your help on Sunday!!

If you have any images I could play around with I'd appreciate it. A good close up of a planet or perhaps a nebula- any quality will do! See what i can do with them...

Next time, it'd be worth trying the barlow. However, this will make it a little bit more difficult to line up the planet. Should make the image bigger though. Hopefully you'll find it easier to control the brightness in K3.

As for images to play with, I'll send you a PM.

Hi,
Tthe killer for me when i started off was trying to estimate the brightness when capturing an image, seems like your hitting the same problem, better to under estimate the brightness then over estimate it.
You just need more practice,
I remember my first image of Mars looked more like the chocolate bar then the planet :oops:

Seanie

In fact the best scopes for hi res planetary is between 8 - 12 inches. Check out Christopher Go or Geoff Chester they both use C8s.

Dave

When getting the brightness right make sure that you can see detail ie for Saturn keep the cassini visible or the gap between the rings and the planet. Feel free to copy any of my images from the files section to practice on.


DaveG