These are a couple of the first shots taken during daylight using this cam attached to my telescope.

This is a rain drop on the telephone cable just outside my window. It's around 15ft away.	This is a close up of a ridge tile on the roof across the road. Around 45ft away.

First Quickcam modification attached to the eyepiece of my telescope.

This modification failed!.

I found that I couldn't focus past a few hundred feet, so, to try and image the Moon would be a waste of time with this webcam modification. After a quick search of the net, I discovered that the CCD chip was positioned too far away from the prime focus position. It should be positioned where the eyepiece would normally be. Time to rethink my next design.

Second Quickcam VC Modification

For the second design, I decided to scrap the idea of using the Quickcam body and decided to mount the whole circuit board into an electronics project box. After another search on the net for a few more ideas, I decided to use the original lens holder to try and bring the CCD closer to the front of the box.

I purchased a small box that was large enough to house the Quickcam circuit board. In the centre of the lid, I drilled a hole just big enough for the lens holder to push through and glued the lens holder in place. The circuit was then fastened back onto the lens holder with the two small screws kept from my first modification. A groove was cut into the top edge of the box to enable the cable to exit when the lid was fastened shut. Another 35mm film canister, with the bottom removed, was glued onto the front of the box, centrally over the lens holder.

The second modification completed.

I tried the cam out on my telescope and found that I could focus on buildings in the city centre, about a mile away and I still had plenty of turns available on the focusser. I was sure this was going to work.

Success!

Moon captured on 13.09.03.

Current Project

I am just about to complete my third modification
which has a couple of refinements and should be more durable.

Taking inspiration from a couple of websites, I decided to fix a T2 SLR camera mount onto the front of a smaller box and use a purpose made adapter to fit the cam to the telescope eyepiece. This is much more durable than a 35mm film canister which I have snapped off the front of my second mod a couple of times. The first job was to cut the back of the T2 mount, this is the bit that would normally fit into the front of an SLR camera, as I only needed the front part of the T2 mount. The back section was cut off with a hacksaw and a file was used to smooth off the rough edges. I used epoxy resin to glue the T2 mount onto the front of the box, and up to now, seems very strong. I could have drilled holes through the T2 mount and bolted it to the box, but I wouldn't have been able to do the next stage.

By putting the T2 mount on to the front of the box I increased the distance between the CCD and the prime focus position, so to remedy this I mounted the lens holder onto a plastic disk that sits further forward inside the T2 mount. I discovered that if you loosen the three grub screws on the outside of the T2 mount, the inner threaded ring could be removed. This revealed a groove under the inner ring onto which a plastic disk could be dropped and then fixed in place by refitting the inner ring. I cut a disk of plastic from an old CD case (The black part) and mounted and glued the lens holder into a hole cut in the centre. I placed the disk and lens holder into the mount. Replacing the threaded ring locked this disk in place and has the effect of raising the CCD back towards the Prime focus by a good 5mm. On the inside, by moving the CCD further forward everything else has moved forward aswell. I had to cut out a section of the box the size and shape of the long square chip on the front of the circuit board this was so the circuit could sit flush with the back of the lens mount. This was one of the problems I encountered and luckily, this is hidden under the T2 mount.

Lens holder attached to the plastic disk.	The plastic disk inside the T2 mount.
The threaded ring clamps the disk inside the mount.	Inside of box showing cutout section for the circuit board.

I encountered another problem that sticks out of the front of the Quickcam circuit board. The capacitor.

Moving the capacitor

The biggest modification I've had to make was to the circuit board.
The capacitor can be seen in this picture just above the CCD.

The Quickcam VC has a large capacitor sticking out at the front just above the CCD. Leaving this in place meant I would not have been able to mount the circuit in the new box. To remedy this, I had to move it. Using a fine pointed soldering iron I gently heated up the two contacts found either side of the capacitor, and gently lifted the capacitor at the same time. It helps to have the circuit clamped in some way so that you can use both hands. It took plenty of heat to remove the capacitor, but it came off fairly easily and luckily the heat didn't damage anything. I soldered two short wires onto the circuit board and then soldered these wires to the contacts on the capacitor. Make note of which contact went where on the board and make sure you solder the capacitor back on the correct way round. I had to open my second Quickcam just to double check things were correct.

Capacitor soldered onto longer wires	Circuit mounted with capacitor folded around to the back	CCD visible through lens holder

As you can see in these pictures, the circuit fits now as I can fold the capacitor round towards the back.

This is what this modification will look like when finished, with a 2x Barlow lens screwed onto the T2 mount.

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