Possibly a silly question...

[DemonicOmelette]

I am, obviously, only just starting out... And I have a couple possibly really stupid questions...

Firstly, I have seen lots of people do imaging with a webcam. Now forgive my idiocy, but presumably you need to bring a laptop along with you, there's no way to save the pictures (or indeed even power the cam!) in the field otherwise...

Secondly, I have bought a scope with a motor mount. I can't, however, get my head around a possibly obvious question: Does the moon track across the sky at the same speed as the stars? Even thought the moon is in orbit around the earth? I would think it would track much faster... And if it does, then presumably I would need to follow it manually, as the motor drive is geared to follow the stars?

Please, please forgive me....

-eli

[almach]

You will need a laptop yeah. If I ever get the kit to do this, it will have wireless access with remote desktop or some such software running, so I can sit in the house in the warm with a beer and control it all from there

The moon orbits in the opposite direction to the direction that the stars appear to move, so it would be slower not faster, though I suspect it is a very small diffrence that wouldn't make much difference to taking an image.

Cracking name by the way. I assume you make such an Omlette in Hell's Kitchen?

[DemonicOmelette]

Ah, well my laptop unfortunatly doesn't have a battery, so I can't take it out into the field...

Can you do afocal photography (of bright objects like the moon..) through the eyepiece holding the camera by hand? I have an Olympus Digital SLR and an olympus compact digital. I can't find anything on exactly HOW best to do photography (or even if you can) without a mount or special equipment...

And DemonicOmelette has always been my 'alter ego', ever since I was a wee'un and had a teacher always refer to me as a bad egg....

-eli

[scotastro]

Using a low magnification in the scope you can hand hold your camera up to the eyepiece, this only works or the Moon as it is so bright.

Skywatcher scopes have a T mount thread on the focuser (you will need an adaptor for your camera)or you can buy a 1.25" or 2" adapter which has the same bayonet fit as your camera. This allows the camera to fit in the same way as an eyepiece.

DSLRs are generally quite heavy on small aperture scope with light weight mount so be careful the scope does not fall over.

Mike