Overview

 Principles of imaging Webcam Imaging  Choosing your webcam  Other equipment

Part 1  Software Equipment

Principles Choosing your webcam

 Poor man’s adaptive optics  Good light sensitivity (<1 lux )  Freeze the seeing by capturing very short exposures  Fast frame capture rate

 Capture large number of frames  Good dynamic range

 Discard distorted frames  Ideally CCD chip, not CMOS  Stack frames to create an ‘average’ image  Low/no image compression  Image processing to sharpen image

 Bright objects – Planets, Moon, Sun,  Fast connection Spacecraft

Mono Chips Colour Chips Mono Chips  Greater sensitivity > lower gain and/or  Can be used on all subjects greater magnification  Higher resolution than the equivalent  Lower resolution than the colour chip

equivalent mono chip  All that is needed for most lunar imaging

 No colour filters and shorter  Luminance layer with RGB from colour webcam processing webcam  For full colour need to buy set of colour  Low Hassle filters + wheel/slider (£200+)  RGB AVI takes 3+ x longer to capture and 4+ x longer to process

1 Chip sizes Frame rate and compression – USB 1.1

 640 x 480 (), 1024 x 768, 1280  Low frame rate > low compression + low gain, but x 960 or 1616 x 1232 seeing not frozen + long capture times  High frame rate > high compression + high gain,  Small chips have faster frame rates and but seeing frozen + short capture times higher sensitivity (due to larger pixels)

 Larger chips cover larger area of sky, but slower frame rates + lower sensitivity

 Planets – Large chip size not important as optics/seeing limit resolution more often than chip size

 Moon/Sun – Larger chip = fewer captures to cover a large area

Frame rate and compression – USB 2/ Firewire/GigE

 USB 2/USB3/Firewire/GigE = no compression  Firewire - need for extra cables of laptops CamerasCameras  GigE – Works over network cabling

 Larger chips > more data to send > lower frame rates

 640 x 480 = max. 60 fps

 1024 x 768 = max. 30 fps

 1280 x 960 = max. 15 fps

Microsoft Cinema HD LifeCam Meade Lunar and Planetary Imager (LPI ) Live Vision  Bundle = cam + adaptor + software  CMOS Chip - 640 x 480 colour  640 x 380 CMOS chip  Max 30 fps (USB 2.0)  £30 ( discontinued )  Requires destructive modifications Remove 4 x LEDs + glue on adaptor

 EBay - £2.99

2 Philips Toucam QHY5v or t  Philips Toucam Pro II/SPC 900NC  a.k.a. Orion Starshoot Planetary Imager  Sony ICX098BQ colour chip  Mono/colour CMOS Chip (v) - 752 x 480  Chip - 640 x 480 colour  Mono CMOS Chip - 2048 x 1536  Max 10 fps (USB 1.1)  Max 55 fps (752 x 480)  Discontinued  USB 2   £50 -£80 (+£60 for optional B&W  £185 - £195 modification)

 Screw -in adaptor (£10 -£20)

Celestron Neximage Atik  Celestron Neximage (discontinued ) = Toucam  Atik 1- HS2 webcam  Cam + adaptor + software (outdated)  Chip - 640 x 480  Celestron Neximage 5  Monochrome, air cooled, long exposure,  2592 x 1944 colour CMOS chip RAW mode

 50 fps (640 x480 mode)  Max 60 fps (320 x 240 mode)  USB 1.1  £299 USB 1.1  Discontinued

Imaging Source Lumenera  DMK (mono) or DBK (colour) series  Lumenera SkyNyx (colour or mono)  Models based on ICX098BQ and ICX618ALA series imaging chips  Chip - 659 x 494 to 1616 x 1216  Max 60 fps (659 x 494 models)  Chip - 640 x 480 to 1280 x 960

 Max 60 fps (640 x 480 models)  USB 2

 USB 2 or Firewire or GigE models  12 bit images

 £275 to £480  $1000 to $2700  Avoid DFK variant with (+ duty and VAT) built -in IR cut filter  Chip now a bit out of date

3 Point Grey Flea 3 Basler Ace/Scout

 Sony ICX618ALA chip  Sony ICX618ALA chip Sony ICX618ALA chip  Chip - 640 x 480  Chip - 640 x 480 to 2080 x 1552  Max 120 fps  Max 150 fps (640 x 480 models)  GigE Vision  USB 3.0, Firewire (800) standard or  12 bit images GigE Vision  £520  16 bit images 16 bit images  Problem with circular artefacts  £540 to £1,600 and noise caused by overheating

Atik Titan QHY IMG0H

 Sony ICX618ALA chip  Sony ICX242 chip  640 x 480 – colour or mono versions  Mono - 659 x 494  14 bit/8 bit output USB 2.0  Max. 50/30 fps  Max 15 fps  £379  16 bit images  Includes Guide port and active cooling  £465 – multi -purpose camera  Includes Guide port and active cooling – multi -purpose camera

Toucam – modifications TweakingTweaking youryour PhilipsPhilips Factory Settings Optimised non RAW WebcamWebcam

RAW mode B/W Chip

4 Toucam firmware upgrades Toucam RAW mode

 Astrobond – WcRmac software  RAW mode outputs data in black and white

 Optimised colour mode  Software converts this into colour data

 RAW mode  Most capture programs only display ‘live’ RAW image in b&w

 Programs such as Sharpcap and QCFocus will display live RAW image in low - resolution colour

 Need to debayer AVI before processing (option built in to Registax software) More difficult to judge focus and exposure in RAW mode Factory Settings RAW mode Optimised non RAW

Toucam – Mono chip Toucam - LX modification

 Replace Sony ICX098BQ colour chip with  Normal Toucam Pro limited to no more Sony ICX098BL than 1/5 th sec exposure

 £60 for B&W modification  Add components and re -wire inside to allow for long exposures

 Good for up to 30 secs , longer with air cooling

 Uses separate Parallel port wire for LX control

 Parallel port to USB converter

Connecting your webcam Barlows and Focal Reducers

 Remove lens  Connect between webcam and

 Screw in adaptor telescope

 Fit any filters/barlow lenses  2 x Barlows essential for planets

 Put it in eyepiece socket on telescope  Up to 4 x Barlows can be useful

 Focal Reducers useful for whole Sun or Moon

5 Filters (colour camera) Filters (mono camera)

 Beating the seeing – filters for  IR cut filter – improves sharpness imaging of Moon and ‘Luminance’ and colour balance imaging of planets • Poor seeing > IR pass filter • Moderate seeing > red + IR cut • Good seeing > green + IR cut  UV pass filter (or #47 violet) for imaging Venus  Green + IR cut for imaging the Sun  RGB filters = colour + IR cut

Filters wheel or slider Computer

 USB lead between computer and webcam – >5 m = active lead

 Imaging session can take up over 4GB of Hard disk space

 Lots of hard disk space

 Plenty of memory and fast hard disc

Image Capture Software

 Proprietary software with Camera

 Sharpcap (free)

 WXAstrocapture (free)

 Cratelets (free)

 K3CCDTools 3 (free demo)

 WcCtrl (free)

 FireCapture (for mono high speed video)

 Al’s reticle (free)

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