First Photos With Philips Webcam

Here are the first few image of the Moon that I've taken with Philips modified webcam. I expect the quality to improve as I get a bit more practice. Any suggestions on maybe cleaning them up in eiter Paint Shop or Photoshop welcome.

Hi Joanna,
They're all great starting images, are these single frames or did you stack video sequences?
You could try increasing the contrast in the last image and doing a little unsharp mask just to see what they come out like.
The focus looks a little out and it is almost impossible to fix this afterwards, good focus come with practice.

are these single frames or did you stack video sequences?

These are all single images. I've only tried the video on Jupiter but the files saved as mpeg and not avi.

I found it difficult to tell on the laptop if the image was in perfect focus but as you said this comes with practice. Roll on the clear nights

Hi Joanna.
They are an excellent start.
See if you can sort out the video issue.
If you are using the software that came with the webcam
this may be the problem.
Try K3CCD tools.
Most that use the philips webcam use this.
www.pk3.org/Astro/index.htm?k3ccdtools.htm

Are you familiar with the process Dave is talking about.
There is a tutorial here on this site somewhere but I cant find it right now.
You'll need Registax to process the AVI.
www.astronomie.be/registax/

Well done Joanna good start,

Instead of K3CCDTools try using a simpler program Like "Craterlet" its free and it works - download it at www.stark-labs.com/downloads.html . This is the only video capture software I use now - having tried them all.

The software that comes with the SPC900 will only capture video in mpeg format so its no use for stacking. Use no more than 10 frames per second or you'll get compression and lose quality on individual frames.

Download registax and stack your frames. At the end of stacking play around with the the wavelet function. You'll be amazed at the detail that jumps out after tweaking a few sliders. Focus is the key though, and this will come with practice or investing in a better focuser. I recently invested in a crayford focuser with 1:10 fine adjustment and cannot believe how much easier this makes fine focusing.

Best of luck and clear skies...

Hi Joanna,
K3ccd tools is a great program, give it a go, but the supplied software that comes with the webcam is a little simplier, I suppose it might be easier to atleast start off with this.

try vrecord with the lens on the webcam and try getting an avi of some daytime views,
in vrecord, go to
file, then set capture file type, and make sure its whatever.avi
Then file again
set capture file, and give it a name
then format, video format and use automatic for now
then capture, start capture
You' should see of generating an avi, then stop the capture when 2000 frames have been recorded.
Try open the avi in registax and see if it reads it in, if so then there is nothing stopping you doing the same thing at the telescope for a planet.

You really need to be stacking webcam images to get rid of the graininess.
Here is the registax tutorial I put up.
www.irishastronomy.org/forum?func=view&catid=29&id=39009