I got bored of waiting for the postman, so I made a start on my makeshift planetary/lunar imaging astrophotography camera.It's based on Microsoft's Xbox Live Vision webcam, but you have to open the casing up, destroy the 4 micro-LEDs, carefully remove the lens and infra red filter without touching the sensor chip, and then seal it all back up again. It then needs to be modified to fit into your standard 1.25" telescope eyepiece slot, so a PVC tube is glued on to the front of the body. I've put a lid on the end of mine to stop any dust particles getting onto my sensor chip, but this probably isn't necessary.
There are a couple of guides dotted around the internet that you can follow if you wish to build your own astro-imaging webcam, but for a camera that costs £5 on ebay I'm not expecting much. If I can distinguish between saturn and jupiter in my pictures I'll be over the moon! (no pun intended...). I'll let you know how I get on.
I'm working on my own "Build your own DIY planetary imaging camera" guide, so watch this space!
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