toucam vsersus LPI versus digital cameras

Hi,

I am new to astrophotography and have an LX 90 and an LPI.

So far I have been unimpressed with the LPI.

I also have a Canon EOS 35mm camera a Sony DSC 71 digital and a sony digital camcorder.

I like th eimages seen with the Phillips Toucam.
Is this the best all-round choice for astro work? That is wothout spending $10,000 on an SBig plus extras.I don't think I'd want to take it that far but I would like to take some nice Jupiter shots, some shots of M42, Omega Centauri, 47 Tucanae and Milky Way broad views like Maurice has posted.

Advice?

Cheers,

Greg.

Greg,

For planetary work, the Toucam is probably the best there is (and affordable too!)

For DSOs, you could modify your Toucam for long exposure shots, but that gets tricky & you could end up damaging your webcam if done improperly...

The BEST DSO shots are done with equipment that IS still expensive, but you could get very nice results with CCD cameras in the $1000-$2000... including some of the new DIGITAL SLRs, like the Digital Rebel, the Canon D10 or D60, and others.

On the "regular" digital cameras, I've seen some nice shots coming out of the CoolPix series...



Clear skies!



Ivan


P.S.
The LPI is not bad, but I'm still too see a shot that would rival anything that has been done with a Toucam pro or a Vesta Pro...

Hi Greg.

Ivan speaks words of wisdom.

I also have an LX90 (beautiful little scope). I also have a ToUcam as well as an LPI. I bought the LPI for comparison and to use as an autoguiding tool. My own humble experience with planetary imaging with a ToUcam has been successful and promising. Unfortunately, I can't quite say I have been overly impressed with the LPI. To date, I much prefer the little ToUcam for planetary work. A ToUcam, however, will not perform overly well for deep sky objects (even if modified). This depends, of course, on you opinion of "quality".

Deep sky obects, however, you will still need a good CCD. You shouldn't have to spend $10,000 though. the Starlight Xpress SXV-H9 or SBIG ST2000 are excellent choices for $3,000 to $4,000. Even better yet, the Canon 10D is quite popular among astrophotographers and is proving to be a very capable DSO CCD with a large (35mm) sensor, and it's only about $1500 for the body.

I think you'll have difficulty in finding a best "all around" camera. You will likely require two different set-ups: one for deep sky, the other for planetary.

Derrick.

You can actually get some very good pictures with the LPI. Try looking at this link for some examples http://koti.mbnet.fi/petrike/Updates.htm Why not try to get the best out of your LPI before buying something else. But, that said, I also think that the Toucam is slightly better than the LPI.

Pete