by Phil Chambers
Went to Houge for the public star party last night. Tried a new combination for the Astro TV. Used my digital still cam (Casio 8000sx) which has a video output, on the 5 inch Apex Mak sitting on the GP with an SS2K.
Since the lens doesnt remove, I used eyepiece projection with a 26mm CI plossl and fed the signal to a 8 in TV.
The setup gave quite reasonable views of Jupiter and Saturn. As Rich mentioned there were not very many folks around last night (must be the Olympics) but many of the ones that were there were very interested in the views. Lots of kids would just hang in front of it. Something about TV is addictive, I guess. About 3 bands were viewable on Jupiter at 8x zoom. I should have gone to a 17mm but didnt. Feet got cold about 11 and I left. This setup allows me to take stills whenever i want so I did. If you dont hear from this again, they were not worthwhile :-)
Note: I have now aligned the scope with the RA axis but the ss2k still cannot flip without losing its alignment a little bit. The cg5 did not have that problem as I remember. ???