Webcam and Video Astronomy

Video- and Webcam-Astronomy with a 10" Dobsonian Telescope

I use a bunch of different cameras for astrophotography. The planetary images were made with a 10'-dobsonian (3x Barlow-lens) and with an unmodified webcam (Philips ToUCam). Recently I also use a Quickcam 9000. For deepsky (live) imaging I use the very sensitive Watec 120N (aka Stellacam II) video camera.

Jupiter

Transit of a moon in front of Jupiter (07.06.2004)

Mars

The polar caps are clearly visible

Saturn

International Space Station ISS

Series of images from the an overhead pass of the ISS. Taken with a Philips ToUCam (Webcam) on a 10 inch Dobsonian. Tracking by hand with a viewfinder. In terms of dimensions, looking to the space station at an altitude of about 400 km is similar as watching a small ant at the far end of your living room.

Photo collage of planets illustrate their size with respect to the moon

Pass of the Space Shuttle Discovery - STS 124 - 01.06.2008 (at this time several hundred kilometers behind the space station)

Discovery010608.avi

Pass of the International Space Station ISS 01.06.2008

ISSvideo020608.avi

Pass of the International Space Station ISS (with Discovery) 02.06.2008

ISS010608.avi

Deepsky images (taken with a 10' Dobsonian and WATEC 120N)

Bodes Galaxy M82 (live image)

Globular cluster M3 (live image)

The Whirlpool Galaxy M51 (unguided exposure) - compare with the guided exposure (below)

Homebuilt Equatorial Platform for my Galaxy D10 Dobsonian

For the construction, which took less than a week I adopted Reiner Vogels VNS (Virtual North Segment) design (Link). This platform (even though not optimized yet) works great for planet tracking but also for deep sky imaging.

Whirlpool Galaxy M51 - Raw image from Watec 120N (max gain, 256 frames, the sky background was in September still relatively bright). The image contains many hot pixels. The equatorial platform, is great for video astronomy. Compare with the unguided exposure of M51 above...

M101 Spiral Galaxy

M13 Globular Cluster

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