Moon:this just looks weird.

Hi Mike

Thanks for that, there are some good articles there that will help me understand the subject much better particularly aperture, shutter speed etc and how that impinges on the image.

Just to complicate matters further, just got a Philips SPC900NC this morning for imaging so as well as learning about my Fuji, I'm going to be learning webcam imaging too, it never rains but it pours! lol.

thanks again

Hi CJ, sometimes it feels good to stand in the rain!

Glad you found the links useful, there is some good information in there indeed, handy for reference.
Congratulations on a choice of Philips SPC900NC, it is a good choice of webcam, I don’t have one myself but I believe there are other amateurs here on the forum using this particular model and other ToUcams. Go for an easy target such as the Moon for webcam imaging initially, I think if you want to do some deep sky work in the near future like imaging galaxies and nebulae etc, I think your webcam may need to be modified for long exposure (if not modified already of course). Here is some links to show the capabilities of the SPC900NC when modified for astronomy work, (it’s actually scary what these guys do to webcams!).
The field of view with your telescope and webcam combo will be ~15 x 20 arc minutes; (the diameter of the Moon is ~30 arc minutes or ~0.5 degrees as a comparison). So, if you have any questions just ask and I am sure somebody will drop by to answer them.

frank.r.larsen.homepage.dk/SPC900NC_lxmods.htm
www.home.zonnet.nl/m.m.j.meijer/D_I_Y/spc900nc.htm
www.robertreeves.com/900NC.htm

Clear skies
Mike

After experimenting today.........i have found out that the “Exposure Compensation” button on my camera indeed does make a difference to moon images. I set it to -2.0 (darkens) and got a couple of nice shots. When i set it to +2.0.................the moon was just completely over exposed with no detail.

There was no noticable brightening or darkening of the sky, so thats good.

I'm thinking it will have the same effect on star......................but stars are not as bright as the moon so i'll need to kick it up to +2.0 to make them brighter.

This is my first attempt with the Philips webcam the other night



I'm looking forward to trying it on Saturn

Got mine from Bernard at Modern Astronomy, had it next day, great service

cheers

Fair play CJ, not bad at all,
I'm surprised by the big field of view the webcam is giving you, what scope did you use.

Hi Dave

It's a Skywatcher Explorer 130pm Newtonian
130mm mirror, 650mm focal length with motor drive for RA
www.skywatchertelescope.net/swtinc/produ...ss1=1&class2=104


Just been out capturing some more, but boy is it cold, and my laptop battery just died.

cheers