M1 crab nebula + the moon

I'd have to ask would the modified toucam work with the likes of maxdslr and other autoguiding programs as the autoguider etc...

I can tell you that the modified webcam works with MaxDSLR and with guidedog and K3CCDTools. I know this because I've tested all three (You know there is a 30day unrestricted trial of MaxDSLR?) The guiding functionality of MaxDSLR looks awesome. I'd nearly buy it for that alone.

There is another approach, get a PCI serial/parallel card for the PC and use them instead, I'm currently using a laptop, so that direction is not possible at the moment.


Go to maplin and get a mains power supply for the laptop, dont bother with batteries, run the dc line from the house with the transformer inside, just make sure the power supply can give the right voltage and current.

You see my problem is not from my backyard its when I go out to dark skies that I need to power my old laptop. I already have the mains power supply for it (which I use in my backyard). Somebody else suggested an invertor but I'm sure you dont need me to tell you just how quick that would waste a car battery, so thats not a runner. I think overall the replacement battery option is probably the best option.

Thats great news on the modified toucam,
I will now look seriously into doing the mod.

I see what you're saying about the laptop, a bbattery in that situation is the way to go.

Have you any ideas on what kind of guiding camera you would prefer?? are you going to use the mod webcam ???

Hi Dave,

I am guessing that you let the canon software de-bayer the M1 image? The red noise is an artifact introduced by de-bayering before you have caliberated the image.

Jed.

One thing I forgot to mention, is that the images were taken from the city, light pollution included, I'd imagine that this doesnt help with the red noise.

Dave G,
I've been looking around at the webcam mod sites and found the following,
astro.ai-software.com/index.php?page=art...cam_III/toucam2.html
www.burri-web.org/bm98/l3k/circuit-layout.htm
www.linbrook.f9.co.uk/
www.pmdo.com/wwhich.htm

The soldering looks quite tricky but is do-able, if you know anyone who is a surgeon, they might be able to help
Basically looking at the diagram, about 10-15 euros worth (if even that much!) of parts would get you a deep sky camera!, I'll definitely do this in the first half of next year, I've other "projects" I must get finished first.

If you look at the link below, you can see where the pulsar in the image is
www.seds.org/messier/more/m001_pulsar.html

The 7 minute exposure actually cought the pulsar and a very nearby star as a single elongated star (focusing issues probabily), open up my pic and the link above and you'll see what I mean, I thought the pulsar was much fainter then that !!!