Most PCs that include a USB port could be used to capture images from an unmodified webcam. A laptop computer is the obvious choice.

Image capture and processing requires a reasonably powerful computer, but it's not necessary to have the latest and most powerful machine. My old IBM Thinkpad T21, which uses an 800MHz Pentium III CPU and 512 MB of RAM, is just about up to the Job. It used to manage with only 384MB of RAM.

The original SC webcam mods were intended to be controlled via a parallel printer port. My old Thinkpad includes a parallel port, but most recent laptop computers do not. They rely on being able to communicate via USB.

USB to parallel port adaptors and PCMCIA to parallel adaptors are available, but as mentioned in the section 'Background/References', these DO NOT work with modified webcams.

If you are forced to rely only on USB connections, then most USB to Serial adaptors should work. Software drivers are usually supplied with the adaptors to enable them to work with Microsoft Windows.

Users of Linux should not have problems. Drivers for the most used chip sets are included with or are available for most recent distros. I can confirm that SuSE Linux v9.1, v10.0, and v11.0 onwards will automatically recognise and configure a USB to serial adaptor to appear as /dev/ttyUSB0. SUSE v10.2 and v10.3 need a bit of hacking to work, refer to the wxAstroCapture website for details.

To find suppliers of USB to serial adaptors, search the Internet via Goggle, etc with "USB serial"

1. A small picnic table or other surface to support your laptop PC, etc

2. Spare battery? Cold nights are hard on batteries, If you cannot use mains power, you might need a spare battery. If working from your car, use a 12v/laptop power adaptor.

3. If working during daytime (eg photographing sunspots) you might need a black/lightproof hood, similar to what was used with old plate cameras. This will help when setting up and viewing via a telescope, but is especially useful when trying to view the screen of your laptop in bright sunlight.
DANGER: If photographing sunspots, you MUST fit a reliable solar filter IN FRONT OF the telescope. Do not use the kind of solar filter that screws onto the back of an eyepiece!!!!

4. Extension leads/connectors for your webcam. These will allow you to loop leads over your telescope/mount, so as to minimise possibilities for movement of the webcam during exposures.

5. Unless your computer has a large capacity hard drive, you might need additional storage capacity. AVI files can be LARGE, typically several hundred MB to over a GB. External drives can be bought that can be connected via USB, and can be useful while on holiday, etc. Alternatively, you could use a CD/DVD writer. If one of these isn't fitted into your computer, external/USB units can be bought.

6. In the UK, Maplin can be a good source of components, cables, and ancillary electronic gear such as 12v to laptop power supplies.