Web cameras are not just limited to video conferencing they can prove handy in astrophotography too, with little modifications.

Ulrich Beinert here uses a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) to directly download sky images on the hard disk of his PC where you can view them in real time and even modify them. Ulrich ripped off the circuit board with the CCD chip of a B&W QuickCam VC and made the QuickCam astro-compatible and fixed it at the prime focus of a 1250mm telescope. The camera software can be used effectively to adjust the brightness and contrast settings for different objects. The astrocam surprisingly produces large images.

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