webcam

Webcams are a type of video camera designed to capture high-speed video clips. This makes them ideally suited to planetary imaging as they can capture a large number of individual images (the component frames of the video clip) which can then be sorted by software to reject blurry images and stack sharp images to yield an detailed planetary picture.

The Phillips ToUCam Pro II is probably one of the best webcam available for astronomical images (as of summer 2005). It features a CCD sensor giving an effective resolution of 640x480 pixels, the sensor has 659x494 raw pixels. The pixel size is 5.6um times 5.6um.

Color mosaic filter is built-in so that it can capture color image in one shot. This is particularly handy for planet imaging.

The tiny lens that comes with the camera is easily unscrewed and an adapter allows the webcam to be inserted in a standard eyepiece holder.

I used this camera for almost all the planetary images presented here.

I acquired it only few months ago.

This is a B&W version of the Toucam Pro III with effectively higher resolution and sensitivity.

It uses the best grade of mono chips available (Sony ICX098BL) with native "Raw" mode. Sensitivity is approximately three times that of the colour camera with greatly enhanced response in the UV and IR.

Here is my first shot with this webcam :