Camcorder Mars

[TopHouse]

Did this tonight, (20th April) Camcorder screwed onto Baader Hyperion 8mm.

[Peter Drew]

Hello Tophouse. Glad to see that I'm not the only one left who still uses a camcorder for planetary imaging. Whilst I would be the first to concede that the latest computer run webcams ultimately give the best images, my computing skills and patience don't as yet extend to that. My experience has been that with minimum fuss or effort it is possible to obtain very acceptable real time images of the planets giving a much more realistic impression of what the object looks like in the telescope. Your Mars image shows plenty of detail and if done recently is good going for the current image scale offered by Mars. I use a Canon MV5iMC mini DV unit connected mostly to a 15mm Plossl in the afocal format and the image zoomed to around 75% of the optical range. Some of my best images have shown detail inside the Red Spot and hints of Enke's Division, this with a 12"SCT.