Polarcam

[Carole]

I have long been wanting to add a webcam to my Polarscope as I think kneeling down and cricking your neck in a not very comfortable position is a PITA.  Especially as you get older or have neck, knee or back problems.  I don't know why manufacturers haven't cottoned on to this yet.  There's all sorts of gadgets out there to do various fancy extras, but not this one thing.  All they have to do is make a 1.25" opening with a fixing screw.

Anyway, my previous efforts were in vain because the webcam I had did not see stars.  
Now I have an SPC900 I thought I'd have another "go" at it as even though I have a pier, I still have to do it at DSC.  

I am in the process of attempting to do the following mod, so far so good, but cutting the middle out of the plastic end stop was quite amusing as I don't have the tools or skills to do this and ended up doing a circle of drill holes and then cutting from one hole to the other and then filing it down.  It is "sorted of" circular but hopefully when the epoxy resin has set it will work.

Thought I'd post it here in case any-one else wanted to do it.  Fingers crossed it will work this time.
http://www.astronomyshed.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1174

Carole

[RobertM]

Never seen you looking like that Carole - are you in drag

[Carole]

 
He has some good tutorials on Astroshed, but sometimes his explanations could do with "getting to the point".

Carole

[The Thing]

Did you get the correct plumbing fitting and a stepped drill bit (not much at Toolstation)?

Personally I like the crick in the neck. It's a good excuse to have plenty of muscle relaxant.

Now where's that bttl gotto?

[Carole]

Personally I like the crick in the neck

Trouble is Duncan, you are young and fit but there are a lot of Seniors doing Astrophotography out there who are not so fit having had hip or knee replacements, or have bad backs or necks.  I can manage it OK, but just find it a chore and feel surely there has to be an easier way.

Anyway, I tried it out last night.  Once it is dark you can't see the reticule without putting the light on on the mount, and once the light is on you can only see a narrow FOV, so wasn't entirely successful, but I did manage to do half of the polar alignment without having to bend down and crick my neck.  
Might work better before it is completely dark, and the whole reticule shows up if a torch is held at the top of the polarscope, so might try out my gadget I used to use with the CG5 GT.  

Did you get the correct plumbing fitting and a stepped drill bit (not much at Toolstation)?

Yes, got the right part, but wasn't forking out for a special tool just to cut ONE hole.  As said before, did a cowboys job on it with a drill and file, and although not perfectly round once it was glued with Epoxy resin it worked fine.

Carole

[The Thing]

Trouble is Duncan, you are young and fit

I wish - big 50 next year. And being 6'7" makes getting to the polarscope EP a yoga style experience!

Congrats on getting it working. I have been looking at one of these self contained video units.

[Carole]

I wish - big 50 next year.

Well comparatively young then.   

[mickw]

Once it is dark you can't see the reticule without putting the light on on the mount, and once the light is on you can only see a narrow FOV, so wasn't entirely successful

If you used a capture program (K3, PHD etc) to view the webcam, you could slow the frame rate and/or increase the gain - that should help

[Carole]

Yes I was using Sharpcap.  Yes could try changing the settings,  never thought of that one. 

Carole