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Philip SPC900NC Modified

Here is final result of Dave's work. The camera works for long exposure which will enable me to get some deep space objects, I am hoping to give it a try soon, check back later for some images.

Philips SPC900NC Modifications

One third of my garage is my shop for my other hobby which is woodworking and doing things around the house, doing electrical stuff around the house is only something I do if it involves a light bulb replacement or possibly changing a switch or a socket so doing a modification to a webcam was not really a consideration for me to do myself. Along came my Father-inlaw with 60 some years experience in electronics, it is what he did for a living with Northern Telecom, many thanks Dave. BTW 81 years old. 

Celestron CGEM-800 Telescope

I have this image on my main page but it is there as an unclickable thumbnail so I thought would post the larger size so you can see my full set-up. The AT6RC sometimes sits on the top rail where the ST-80 is now.

Moon Halo and Jupiter

I took this shot of the moon with my Sony F-828 on Nov, 10, 2011. We have had quite the amount of cloud cover here in AZ but there was a break in the clouds but just enough haze for a moon halo, Jupiter is at bottom right close to the palm tree. This was shot at almost 90' straight up.

NASA Jupiter image from New Horizons on it's way to Pluto

WOW! what a beautiful image, would love to be a fly in a space suit on the New Horizons Probe to see this up close. New Horizons did a fly by of Jupiter getting a speed boost from Jupiters gravity and while doing so took a few image on the fly by. Read the full story at http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2107.html

Waning Gibbour Edge Close Up

Single capture taken with my SPC900NC webcam

Venus Sunset

This was shot with my Sony F-828 camera from the top of one of the smaller peaks in Thunderbird park in Glendale AZ. Venus is setting beyond the White Tank Mountains in the west. 10-16-11

Waxing Crescent Moon 45 Image Mosaic

This image is made up of 45 images to create a full Waxing Crescent Mosaic total time for imaging was about 2hrs 15min and then about 3hrs for processing if printed at full size this image would be 110"x 140". I would love to get a print that size done of it but where would I put it. 

Crescent Moon Top

This is a mosaic of 22 images taken with my SPC900NC webcam, this is just half of the mosaic there are 45 in total that make up the full mosaic. I love how capturing the small images and then pulling them all together gives the moon such clarity.

Waning Gibbous Moon Edge

This is a single capture taken with my SPC900NC webcam

Waxing Crescent Moon Edge

This is the shadow edge of a Waxing Crescent Moon, it is a 9 image mosaic shot with my SPC900NC webcam and proccesed in RegiStax and composited in Photoshop. The mountains on the left are the Alpennines and Caucasus ranges with the highest point being around 18,000ft

Waning Gibbous Moon Edge

Another close up on the craters on the edge, this is a mosaic of 6-8 captures at Prime Focus

Waning Gibbous Moon Craters Close Up

This was taken at Prime Focus, next time I am going to get closer with my 2X Barlow

Waning Gibbous Moon Top

This is a mosaic of 8 images taken with my SPC900NC webcam, this is what the top of the Waning Gibbous Moon looks like from AZ USA. I think I could have had the exposure up a little higher so it would not have appeared so dark.....next time

Waning Gibbous Moon Close Up

This is a composite of 12 images, the image has also been shifted 90' CCW, I felt that it looked better this way, no other reason. 

Waning Gibbous Moon

This is a mosaic of 31 separate images taken with my SPC900NC webcam shot through my SCT8 at prime focus, the images have been composited together in Photoshop, I would have liked to have gotten all of the moon that night but sleep called me away.

Uranus

For fun I captured this image of Uranus on the same night as Jupiter below with my SPC900NC webcam, I was not expecting too much but I was also surprised when I processed it in RegiStax. Next time I am going to get out the 2x Barlow and see what I get.

Jupiter-Moons and Aries

This is a combination of 4 images taken with my SPC900NC webcam composited in Photoshop. The moon have a higher exposure setting than the rest of the images but also a shorter time on the exposure. I used the Starry Nights software to look back in time at the positioning of the moons and Aries at the time I took the captures to be sure they were in the right spot. 

Jupiter 10-20-11

I took this shot of Jupiter at 11:30pm using my SPC900NC Webcam it is a stack of 326 images the best of 1500 total. Stacked in RegiStax and processed in Photoshop. I used SharCap for the capture software.