Hi

What is the best webcam for Astro Imaging in the 100.00 range
Thanks

I think the general consensus is that the Toucam Pro II is one of the best out there due to it having a CCD chip - you can pick one up for significantly less than 100. It is however limited to 640x480 resolution. From what I have seen - the toucam outperforms supposedly dedicated lunar and planetary cams - such as the meade LPI. I have an unmodified toucam and am fairly happy with it.

There are some USB2.0 megapixel webcams on the market now with CMOS chips that are supposed to have quite good sensitivity - but I dont have any experience with these.

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Thanks
I did read that we should use CCD chips as opposed to CMOS chips

How bout this one? Philips SPC900NC PC Camera with VGA CCD Sensor and USB 2.0 Interface, anyone ever used this one? I read in a book that it is good. Also what do you use as an adapter to get it into the telescope?

Thanks, any help is great as I am new to this one

Many telescope vendors sell adapters. Most sell the camera with the adapter, others sell them separately. This is just one of many sources. First one I tried.
http://www.astrovid.com/products.php?subcat=72

Yes that is a good camera in your price range. For the moon you might want to consider one with a larger sensor but they are more money as well.

CMOS isn't all that bad in today's world. I believe your Canon DSLR uses one for instance. I've seen some nice work by today's CMOS webcams.

Rick

Hi Rick

Thanks, that is great that they package the cam and the adapter
Do you know if there is a version of this with a bigger sensor, if it takes better images, maybe I am better off spending the extra

Also , when using a webcam, do you see the image in the computer screen as well as the eyepiece?

Thanks

Only if you have a binoviewer and can get both to come to focus at once. I suppose you could come up with some other beam splitter system. But you'll greatly increase your exposure time so I doubt you'd want to do so. The whole idea of a web cam is to capture fast images that catch those fleeting instants of good seeing. The longer the exposure the longer the seeing has to stay perfect. You don't want to waste any photons you don't have to.

Rick

I have the first one, works great