Showing posts with label xbox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label xbox. Show all posts
Thursday, 23 February 2012
Xbox Live webcam massacre
Had to do something to keep myself amused since there's been no clear sky since Saturday last week. :(
Decided it was time to butcher the Xbox Live webcam since apparently removing the IR filter gives better viewing in the dark. Using a post on Stargazers Lounge (http://stargazerslounge.com/diy-astronomer/170747-xbox-livecam-mod-cliff.html) and a blog post on Astro-Beano (http://astrobeano.blogspot.com/2012/01/xbox-360-webcam-ir-filter.html) I was able to successfully operate, and the patient actually survived! Hoorah! \o/
So... now I need to wait for some clear skies. Again! *sigh*
Although, let this be a lesson to anyone thinking of buying a whopping great telescope worth hundreds, you could get it and with bad luck it'll sit doing nothing 90% of the time! :(
Saturday, 18 February 2012
Jupiter and Pleiades
First clear sky in about three nights. Time to test the Xbox Live Cam.
Most folks on the SGL Forum are butchering their cameras to (purposely!) break the green LED's inside then gluing a piece of pipe to the cam so that it can be inserted into the eyepiece of the scope. I'm going the less destructive route first. For a change. I'm keeping it intact and using some blu-tac to put a piece of pipe around the cam. I'm also keeping the adjustable lens in it. Basically if, after a while, I can't get anything good out of it then I'll butcher it to hell. :)
Jupiter looked awesome tonight. The bands of colour were just visible, but the four moons stood out really well! Hopefully a couple of Xbox Cam videos will produce some sort of image I can post.
One image I can post if of a star cluster I found by accident. Pleiades!
Was scanning the sky after looking at Jupiter and came across a big group of stars. Took a while to get my head around their placement (remember: everything in the scope is flipped horizontally and vertically!) but using Kstars (on my old laptop) I managed to place the stars as Pleiades (NGC 1432). The photo was taken using my digital camera held to the 25mm eyepiece with a high ISO (800, I think).
Anyway, time to process those videos of Jupiter...
Most folks on the SGL Forum are butchering their cameras to (purposely!) break the green LED's inside then gluing a piece of pipe to the cam so that it can be inserted into the eyepiece of the scope. I'm going the less destructive route first. For a change. I'm keeping it intact and using some blu-tac to put a piece of pipe around the cam. I'm also keeping the adjustable lens in it. Basically if, after a while, I can't get anything good out of it then I'll butcher it to hell. :)
Jupiter looked awesome tonight. The bands of colour were just visible, but the four moons stood out really well! Hopefully a couple of Xbox Cam videos will produce some sort of image I can post.
One image I can post if of a star cluster I found by accident. Pleiades!
Was scanning the sky after looking at Jupiter and came across a big group of stars. Took a while to get my head around their placement (remember: everything in the scope is flipped horizontally and vertically!) but using Kstars (on my old laptop) I managed to place the stars as Pleiades (NGC 1432). The photo was taken using my digital camera held to the 25mm eyepiece with a high ISO (800, I think).
Anyway, time to process those videos of Jupiter...
Wednesday, 15 February 2012
Ah, Doctor Frankenstein
Got my £6 Xbox Live Cam today.
Will hopefully get a bit of plastic pipe for it tomorrow and spend Thursday night butchering the little blighter.
The idea (according to this post on the SGL Forum) is to remove the internal LED's (which apparently increase the video noise level), remove the lens focuser and, last but not least, bolt on the piece of tubing to let me insert the cam into the scope instead of an eye piece. How good it'll be for photos when there's no eyepiece, I've no idea. Soon find out tomorrow though.
Worst comes to the worst: I lob the piece of pipe off, and rig the cam to the eyepiece holder or something.
Nurse, scalpel...
Will hopefully get a bit of plastic pipe for it tomorrow and spend Thursday night butchering the little blighter.
The idea (according to this post on the SGL Forum) is to remove the internal LED's (which apparently increase the video noise level), remove the lens focuser and, last but not least, bolt on the piece of tubing to let me insert the cam into the scope instead of an eye piece. How good it'll be for photos when there's no eyepiece, I've no idea. Soon find out tomorrow though.
Worst comes to the worst: I lob the piece of pipe off, and rig the cam to the eyepiece holder or something.
Nurse, scalpel...
Sunday, 12 February 2012
Review and a purchase
If you're wondering what I think of the Skywatcher Heritage 130P thus far then you can check out my review of it here: http://stargazerslounge.com/member-equipment-reviews/175621-skywatcher-heritage-130p.html
In short: well chuffed.
I've also just bought a £6 Xbox Live webcam. Apparently these cams can be easily modified for use with telescopes and work pretty well considering their cheapness. Will report back on that when I get it.
*taps fingers* just need the clouds to bugger off now...
In short: well chuffed.
I've also just bought a £6 Xbox Live webcam. Apparently these cams can be easily modified for use with telescopes and work pretty well considering their cheapness. Will report back on that when I get it.
*taps fingers* just need the clouds to bugger off now...
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