Electronic EP - Any experience of these?

[daz]

I was asked a question about doing a 'demo' of the night sky - and this got me thinking about the electronic EP's that you see advertised on certain auction sites.

Any one have any experience of these and if they work?

Ta

[gsjag]

I think the Meade one works OK but it's only B&W and has quite a narrow FOV (equivalent to a 4mm eyepiece). Must stress that I have never actually used one though.

Gary

[FLO]

I have supplied a couple of the Meades to schools and the feedback suggests that they are good for lunar, solar and planetary but not much else.

[Ambermile]

Yup - they are really only planetary/lunar. The autogain thing is a bit of a pain...

Arthur

PS - I'd suggest a Watec/Mintron to be honest. More control but sadly more pennies!

[russ]

I've saw the Antares jobby in operation for the Venus transit a couple of years back. It did quite a good job and the visitors to the observatory were suitably impressed. As a way of showing large groups a live image of the Sun and Moon they work well. I imagine they would do a suitable job on the brighter planets too. Pretty good for £25.

Russ

[Ambermile]

Downside is all the electrickery (power, AV leads, monitor) you need alongside. I have a little bw camera that sits in the EP hole that has a small lcd screen on the back of it. Much more robust

Arthur

[russ]

The guy that had this Antares jobby used one of those Playstation 1 portable LCD screens. I think it was a 5.5" LCD and used it's own battery pack which lasted a good hour or so. It was all pretty self contained with just a single AV lead running between the camera and LCD.

Russ

[geppetto]

Theres also a low tech method of projecting Sun/Moon

from the eyepiece to a white card 8)

[daz]

Thanks all.

The idea was to run the EP to a projector - for 25 squids I can afford to play!!