DIY Guiding Cameras

[Andreas Kempe]

Hello everyone,

I've been making attempts at guided photography using PHD2 on FreeBSD
with a Logitech HD C270 Webcam that I got cheaply. The camera is used
together with a 600 mm focal length guiding scope. Software wise
everything has been working, but the camera sensitivity has been a
real downer.

Guiding works fine for bright stars about the brightness of Vega, but
much dimmer than that and the camera appears to be cutting off the
image signal and sends a completely white image. Fiddling with
amplification, brightness, etc settings helped a bit, but not much.

I spoke to an acquaintance who brought up the Raspberry Pi cameras.
After some googling, they should work using the V4L API and it seems
fairly trivial to remove the lens to expose the sensor. There also
appears to be a version without any IR filter, whether it would be
beneficial to guiding or not, I don't know. The one major downside I
see given they're sensitive enough is having to do my guiding using a
Raspberry Pi, but it is something I'd probably be able to live with.

I found a resource[1] that recommend Philips webcameras with CCD
sensors, but they seem hard to get as they appear to have gone out of
production. There are cameras available on ebay, but the import taxes
to Sweden and shipping prices are quite high.

Does anyone have any experience with the Raspberry Pi cameras in low
light conditions or perhaps suggestions for other cheap cameras still
in production that work well in low light condition?


Cordially,
Andreas Kempe

1: http://www.orion-xt10.com/philips-spc900nc-webcam.html