Hello and welcome to my web cam setup page.
I have recently started in astronomy and astrophotography its quite
easy to start all you need is a PC or laptop with usb (universal serial
bus) or a printer port depending on which web cam you have if you have
a TV capture card with video in you can use that to grab images. And a
telescope I started out with a TV capture card and a small
colour cam feeding video out using the software the was supplied with it
then i found a device called snappy this unit plugs in to your printer
port but if you use your printer often then you'll need to be able to get
to the back of you PC easily to plug your printer back in , if you have
a usb port it might be worth getting a usb printer to allow you to leave
the capture device connected . Now I have a laptop with 2 usb ports so
I no longer have a problem, there is some software about that will run
a usb web cam the one that I use is called VEGA 1.2.1 you can take movies
as well as bmp,fits, and it has a oscilloscope function so you can monitor
the colour levels and in user setup allows you to adjust the web cam. Or
any other camera you have connected
VEGA SOFTWARE IS AVAILABLE FROM
http://www.ncare.co.uk/qc/
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DOWNLOAD IT .
ALTHOUGH MOST OF YOU WILL HAVE BIGGER AND BETTER SCOPES YOU WILL BE
ABLE TO TAKE SOME WONDERFUL PICTURES
With the snappy capture device you can use almost any ccd camera as
long it has comp video out . The first camera I got was a cheep b/w costing
only £25.00 this did the job to start with but then I wanted colour
so I got a £35 cheep ccd camera and this did the job very well .
Now getting involved with LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers)
I have tried other ccd cameras and yes if you want to spend lots of money
you can have the best just I have found that not always the best is necessary
.
PICTURE'S OF MY CAMERA'S
First is my bought 1 ( KOBI ) 1/3" B/W CCD
The adapter was made for me
LOGITECH Q-CAM USB
All i did to this unit was unscrew the lens system and made a mounting to connect straight to the scope the only problem with it is the usb lead is not long another but this can be over come by buying an usb extension lead good computer shop should have these on the shelf
HOME MADE UNITS
This unit was very cheep to make . I bought a cheep B/W CCD PCB and mounted this inside the box , the brass ring comes out of a old video recorder (part of the flywheel ) drilled to suit my cam
My next camera is the second one I built its a colour ccd and in a aluminium case which acts as a heat sink to keep the ccd cool. I am now looking at liquid cooling the housing of my next cam using antifreeze liquid I can cool it down to -5 this should cut the noise down on long exposures. As soon as I have the final unit together I will post pictures to this site .
