What can you do when the astronomy bug gets you? There really is no way to fight it and honestly why would you want to. 10 years ago I was given a Christmas present by my wife that changed what I do on many moonless nights. The gift was a Bushnell 4" newtonian telescope complete with EQ-2 mount and a selection of .965" eyepieces. I know many of you more experienced are laughing and saying "Are you sure she loves you?" But just hold on there... if I'd received a 6" Schmidt-Cassegrain on a goto mount with heated dew shields, 2" focuser, 3x barlow, and, well, you get the idea; I'd never really have gotten to know what astronomy really is. Sure, I could point over there and look at M31 or Orion's nebula; but if it was so easy to see, I wouldn't learn about tracking drives or lens filters or much else. Starting with what I had I was able to really learn and reap the benefits of knowledge and then to appreciate with wonder and awe the creation that God has blessed us with.
So I took that 4" scope and over the next few years made it really work. I center-pointed the mirror. I learned how to collimate. I changed the focuser to a 1.25" and got a couple lenses. I added a simple RA drive from Orion. Somewhere along the way one of the legs broke and I made some wooden parts to replace the broken plastic. Meanwhile I was learning so much more than the project I was working on. So often it seems we learn more when we aren't trying. My list of website bookmarks grew until it became difficult to find a site I knew was in the "Geek" folder somewhere. And the thing is; while department store telescopes are looked down on (I didn't know that at the time), I retained the joy I felt from the day I received it. The images it gave were really quite good once it was collimated and cleaned. Yes, how to keep a telescope from collecting dust and dew spots on it's mirror is something else I had to learn.
But eventually I did outgrow the 4". So with Pres. Bush's stimulus check in the bank, I ordered a 2nd-quality 8" newt from Orion and a set of 8" rings to attach it to my poor old EQ-2. Once it was assembled and counterbalanced, I had my doubts for the EQ's lifespan. Sure enough, a season later the center post broke. But my wife was good to me again and Christmas brought a new SkyView Pro EQ mount. A little fiddling got the RA drive added and I was happy... for a while.
One day in 2011, while my daughter wasn't looking, I "borrowed" her Logitech C250 webcam. After removing it from it's case and reapplying the IR filter over the CMOS sensor, I packaged the circuit board piggy-back on a 35mm film cannister with hot glue (amazing stuff) and a lens cap covering it wrapped on with electrical tape. It wasn't pretty but it worked, kinda. More learning. By the end of the year I had some decent results from imaging without a barlow lens:
But dithering and zooming will only get so far. So with a new Orion 2x Shorty barlow lens I imaged what I think is the best I could get from a $30 webcam:
Just missed the Great Red Spot, but got Io as it was beginning its transit. Next time a little more color. All of my photos can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rafterjp/
But I wanted more capability. I had been a member of QCUIAG (rafterjp) for some time and decided it was time to modify a webcam for long exposure. I attempted to purchase a Philips SPC900NC webcam several times but wouldn't let my bid go high enough (dutch heritage). Finally I purchased a Logitech Quickcam Pro 3000 for $10 and started my Mod. Find out how that went by going Here.