It was supposed to rain. And blow. And my back is hurting. And here I stand at my living room window and stare at this beautiful conjunction of Venus, Moon and Jupiter staring back at me. No way can I drive out to Utecht tonight… so I unpack my old refractor.

I had forgotten how much assembly work that piece of garbage needs to be put together. On the other hand, the tripod fits onto the couch table. After 20 minutes of screwing and fumbling the thing finally stands there, I adjust the viewfinder using the lights of an industry installation down the road and set my sights on the Moon. Which, even with this minimal telescope, is a beautiful sight because of a wonderful shadow border, which I consequently watch a few minutes at approx. 80fold magnification.

Then I break out my astro-webcam, connect everything that needs to be connected, test what needs to be tested, and am just about to start a video recording for future stacking when the camera dies on me. I am not a little surprised; re-connecting the camera and rebooting the notebook do not change the fact that the camera is… well, dead.

I own another webcam, which is not modified for astronomical use yet. I screw off its lens assembly and screw on the telescope adaptor piece, fits perfectly. Only this webcam is a bit primitive and does not allow me to set any parameters. After various attempts at getting a usable picture I give up, take a couple of pictures with the Alpha 900 and put away everything I do not have to unscrew. The main problem with the webcam is that it has a higher resolution than the old one, with the chip area being the same—that results in a higher magnification of the picture. Without a motorised mount, a stable picture is impossible to get. I am going to check out the cheap cam at the next opportunity when I’m outside with a serious telescope—maybe usable results are possible.