Moon Imaging with a QuickCam

I just bought a color QuickCam VC (already modified for astronomy by Don Holcombe) and a low-end laptop to go with it. I tried it right after I bought it, on 9/8/98, on the moon and Jupiter. The Jupiter images were disappointing and I didn't upload them (the auto exposure was too long and I didn't figure out until later that I needed to change it), but the moon shots turned out amazingly well considering it was just a first attempt and I had no idea what I was doing. These were all taken on a friend's Takahashi FS128 at prime focus. I didn't do any image processing at all after capturing the images from the camera.

Later, on 9/28/98, I tried again, using my VX102. Again the Jupiter images weren't worth uploading (I think the QuickCam needs more aperture for good Jupiter shots; I'll try some time with my 6" reflector), but the moon images were somewhat better:


The Appenines	Ptolemaus, Alphonsus and Arzachel

The Straight Wall	Walter & friends

The bottom left one shows the Straight Wall, but it's hard to see in the unenhanced image. So I tried some quick enhancement in PaintShop Pro, to get the image at left. A bit grainy, but quite a bit sharper.

...Akkana