The components you need to make a webcamscope are widely available and, whether you choose brand-new or second-hand parts, they won\u2019t cost much. You may even have some of them in a spare drawer.<\/p>\n
I paid \u00a311 for the webcam and \u00a316 for the 200mm M42 lens on eBay, while the eyepiece adaptor, which replaces the webcam\u2019s lens, was \u00a310.<\/p>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2022\/06\/05AdaptingM42cap-6009bed.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C465"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Second-hand M42 lenses are commonly available and, as they use a screw thread rather than a bayonet fitting, you can make a mount for one from an old rear lens cap.<\/p>\n
Lenses can be heavy, though, so you can adapt the wooden mount to incorporate a cradle to support the front part as well.<\/p>\n
When building your webcamscope, it\u2019s important to get the correct distance between the backplate of the lens and the surface of the sensor in your webcam (the registration distance).<\/p>\n
For M42 lenses, the registration distance is 45.5mm. If you vary this by <\/span>too much, you might not be able to focus.<\/p>\n I drilled a 32mm-diameter hole through the wooden mount to hold the webcam adaptor, with a wider recess for the M42 rear lens cap, so the webcam and camera lens were held close together.<\/p>\n A little masking tape wrapped around the adaptor stops it slipping out.<\/p>\n Once set up, you shouldn\u2019t need to make big changes to the focus, <\/span>but it helps to be able to turn the lens\u2019s focus ring if you shift targets.<\/p>\n Cutting away the sides of the wooden mount will make it easier to access the ring.<\/p>\n A metal strip with a \u00bc-inch hole allows the mount to be fixed to a tripod.<\/p>\n Position this once you\u2019ve established the balance point of the assembled instrument, to reduce any tripping potential.<\/p>\n To create an image, you\u2019ll need to capture a video clip. You can use a SharpCap<\/a> on a Windows computer or Open Astro Project<\/a> on a Mac.<\/p>\n Once you have a clip you can use stacking<\/a> software to align and stack the best frames from the video, as well as to remove any noise, and produce a high-quality, still image.<\/p>\n Lynkeos<\/a> is a stacking application for Mac, while RegiStax<\/a> is popular for Windows.<\/p>\n Using this webcamscope is as easy as making it: point, focus and record a video clip.<\/p>\n Experiment with different exposure settings to see which clips are better to process. You\u2019ll become addicted.<\/p>\n By Mark Parrish Published: Monday, 27 June 2022 at 12:00 am A webcamscope provides a simple and cheap introduction to astrophotography. As its name suggests, it\u2019s built around the sort of webcam you might buy for Zoom meetings, rather than a DSLR camera. The components you need to make a webcamscope are widely available and, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":33457,"template":"","categories":[34],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/06\/photograph-the-night-sky-with-a-webcam-scope.jpg",1200,900,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/06\/photograph-the-night-sky-with-a-webcam-scope-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/06\/photograph-the-night-sky-with-a-webcam-scope-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/06\/photograph-the-night-sky-with-a-webcam-scope-768x576.jpg",768,576,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/06\/photograph-the-night-sky-with-a-webcam-scope-1024x768.jpg",800,600,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/06\/photograph-the-night-sky-with-a-webcam-scope.jpg",1200,900,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/06\/photograph-the-night-sky-with-a-webcam-scope.jpg",1200,900,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Mark Parrish Published: Monday, 27 June 2022 at 12:00 am A webcamscope provides a simple and cheap introduction to astrophotography. As its name suggests, it\u2019s built around the sort of webcam you might buy for Zoom meetings, rather than a DSLR camera. The components you need to make a webcamscope are widely available and,…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/33456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2022\/06\/09Addingtripodplate-335c7dd.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C465"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>How to take a photograph with your webcam telescope<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2022\/06\/moon-webcam-scope-4763c8a.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C465"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Tools and materials<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Make an astrophotography webcam scope: step-by-step<\/strong><\/h2><\/body><\/html>\n
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