Webcam and the planets

Taking my courage in hands I bought a cheap webcam and guided by various threads here ands elsewhere, got my first photo of the moon through a LIDL Skylux scope.

It's blurry - low resolution - has a purple cast - and is overall a disaster as an image of the biggest object available
In my defence it was a tad cloudy and even close to rain last night plus i had a very small window of opportunity .

But to me - It's a miracle

It was an experiment -in the nature of proof of concept - it does work !
Opening the cam case and removing the lens was a doddle. Now who is going to tell me why the images on screen of land based object are completely purple and white ? I assume there is normally a filter of some kind built into the webcam lens ?
For the moonshot I set hue to 0 and saturation to 0 - B&W effectively.

Now to figure out how to do it better ..............

Denis.

EDIT - AAAAGH !!!! wrong forum !!
D.

Denis. I'd say you almost certainly removed the Infra Red blocking filter when removing the lens. The IR blocking filter is a pinkish piece of glass which sits in front of the CCD. I suggest you get hold of a better IR filter anyway. Baader planetarium do a nice 1.25" IR blocking filter which is great for webcamming.

I'm sure we'd all like to see your photo anyway:)

The webcam is a CMOS device - labtec - Argos's cheapest one Euro 22.00 I suspect the filter is built into the modular lens thingy.

I'm still reading about mods to CCD chip cam etc - very interesting.
I've always had an interest in electronics . must get the solder out....

This is the pic



Just one shot B4 the cloudes rolled in. :oops:

It's a little tricky working on the lawn looking in the windows. I had to run in a click the mouse to take it
Must get a wireless mouse ..........

D.

Hi Denis,

certainly the cheapo cmos based cams are great for practicing on. I wouldnt expect to get the same results as you would with a CCD based webcan such as the Toucam Pro or Quick Cam Pro.

I have looked at the mods too. In fact I've already thrashed one quick cam pro (99lids down the drain)!! I had everything done when a soldered lead fell off. Not to worry I thought ill just pop that back on. However when soldering the lead back on i splashed the tiniest amount of solder. Of all the places it could have ended up it finished up right across the tiny feet of one of the semiconductors. There was no way to get rid of it all. I tried everything, solder wick, solder pump. The amount was just too small to remove. I eventually gave up and bought a new one. Apart from taking out the lens and the IR filter, and fitting a 1.25" nosepiece. I havent had the courage to try it again. Anyway since im only gonna use the webcam for planetary work I really dont need to mod it any further.
If I were doing it again, i'd mask off everything that I'm not immediately working off. I guess blue tack could fill that role.

Look theres not a lot wrong with that photo that an IR filter (Thats why its pinkish) and a a little better focussing couldnt fix. Look around the net for how to make and use a hartmann mask. That will solve your focus problems.

Good luck and do let us know how you're doing.

Hi Denis,
Look around the net for how to make and use a hartmann mask. That will solve your focus problems.

Hete's one
rao.150m.com/Focusaid.html
Bill H.

Dave G - I could be wrong but as far as I know there are no CCD webcams out there. Or DSLR's. They are all CMOS devices. I'm not an expert though... :oops:

Cheers


Dave McD