raw color mode with webcam

Very nice images Dave. Can you let us know the scope and mount setup? Also, I know the frames are grabbed from an AVI but given fps, what is the exposure of each each image? At 10 fps is it 0.1 seconds?

Finally, good luck with the observatory - I'd be very interested if you could elucidate on your designs.

Cheers
Dave McD

Daveg,
Does Philip have some optical test bench where he gets your optics perfectly alligned in a rotational sence, maybe this is how the image is better?

Hi Folks

The scope is a 10+ yr old Celestron CG11 ie a Celestron 11" SCT on a Losmandy G11 mount. I use a Celestron Ultima (apo design) 2x barlow and a Baader UV/IR blocking filter.
The TUC Pro is set up in RAW mode (see WCRMAC on the net if you want to make the same mod). In this mode the max frame rate is 5fps and the exposure is set to 1/25sec. All the other parameters are set to middle and only the gain is adjusted (about 75% at 1/25).
I use Astrosnap to aquire the images and this saves it as a series of BMPs instead of an AVI. I then copy all the BMPs into Registax 3 to stack and align them.

Phillip took the mount apart and cleaned and regreased the hole thing. He also cleaned the lens and the mirror for me and did a brilliant job. I roughly recollimated but havent finished it yet.

The new observatory will be a run off shed. I'm using 1/2" shuttering ply and 4x2. I'll post pics once I'm finished.

Dave Gradwell

Very interesting comparison! Sorry if this has been covered before, but how does one go about converting a Toucam (I have the 840k) to record in colour RAW?

Thanks,

-- Denis S.

Hi Dennis

It's easy enough. Theres no changes to hardware just th firmware in the EPROM. Search out the freeware WCRmac on the net and follow the step by step insturctions. It does allow you to save the original factory settings in case you have any problems. Let me know if you have any difficulties and I'll try to help.

Dave Gradwell

Thanks Dave,

Michael O'Connell also responded with this link:

www.astrosurf.com/astrobond/ebrawe.htm

I'll give it a try tonight.

-- Denis S.