SPACECAM WEB CAM
I found from experiment that using this for planetary photography that it was about even with the meade DSI and inferior to the Toucam. However it was absolutely perfect when connected to my PST for solar imaging.This was mainly due to the amount of the sun encompassed in the image plus the ease of control of the exposure of the camera to get solar images.With my experience with camera's it is not possible to get pictures easily of the suns surface and get the much dimmer prominences at the same time so two exposures are taken in the form of video avi files of 3 seconds period.The first one for the suns surface the second exposure for the prominence being over exposed burning out the detail on the suns surface but leaving the prominence visible.The two registax processed avi files are then converted into jpeg or bmp files for combining in Paint shop pro as below.
The imaging chip on this camera is huge in physical size compared to the sony type of chips used in other cameras such as the DSI.This gives it a good match to the focal length of 800mm of the takahashi FS102 for solar imaging in white light.The filter I use is stainless steel on glass and sets the Tak at approx F10 when fitted.The only modification to the spacecam is the removal of the lens and the introduction of an 1 1/4 inch dia adapter to make it fit like an eyepiece.
The weather again effects imaging if there is the slightest haze in the sky then contrast is lost between the prominence and the haze just like any other sky pollution at night so you get the haze only.The human eye never ceases to amaze me with it performance in seeing two components of an image easily that are at different brightness levels and different contrasts that an electronic camera can not capture.Capturing a good sun image due to weather limitations in England is just the same as getting good night time conditions ie rare.
Being at solar minimum is not the ideal time for observing the sun but on this occasion a very large sunspot appeared and was relatively easy to photograph once the camera was set up properly.This is without an infra red filter on the camera focussing was done on the suns disc edge then it was wander about with the telescope tracking controls until the spot was found as the camera was at the end of a 3X barlow to get the magnification.After that it was taking enough samples to get that finite moment when the atmosphere stabilised for those few seconds you get good seeing.Takahashi FS102 using glass solar filter at F10 then 3x barlow.
