Tuesday 27 December 2011

Modded Webcam for Polar Scope

While waiting for the weather to improve I was browsing youtube for more info on how to improve my polar alignment and came across a few videos from Astronomy shed.
His site is here and is worth a look when you have time:
 http://www.youtube.com/user/astronomyshed?feature=watch  
 I have since subscribed!

 One of his projects is to modify a webcam for the polar scope and I can tell you it was a breath of fresh air to know I am not the only one to suffer from wet knees trying to get my astrotrac properly aligned. In fact, I hope the webcam can be ported to my CGEM mount as well but I'll try that later.

This is the video I watched beforehand:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L6IvfievRE&feature=BFa&list=UUFK1huCp-0Y3COTfkoV6cVQ&lf=plcp

 Here's a summary of what I did. As I am over the inlaws for Christmas I was fortunate to convince my father in-law that he didn't need the logitech webcam lying in a draw since the new PC has an in built webcam. So, here's how I managed to disassemble and fit a cap the snuggly fits over the end of the polar scope. mod-webcam-polar-scope_27-12-2011003mod-webcam-polar-scope_27-12-2011004 mod-webcam-polar-scope_27-12-2011007mod-webcam-polar-scope_27-12-2011008   mod-webcam-polar-scope_27-12-2011005mod-webcam-polar-scope_27-12-2011006 mod-webcam-polar-scope_27-12-2011001mod-webcam-polar-scope_27-12-2011002mod-webcam-polar-scopemod-webcam-polar-scope-neg 


I'm happy with the focus and have the option to focus the scope when I'm in the field next.  On this polar scope I have illumination but the contrast was not ideal to show it. I'll add to this post with I have a chance to point it to the night sky. I'm a little concerned with how sensitive this webcam is to low light as it wasn't the preferred Phillips SPC900 but we will see.

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