imaging without motor drive?

Excellent nights work. As I am learning, this is the only way to learn astrophotography, through going out there and working on each aspect of it until you are able to control all aspects reasonably well ( im nowhere near there yet).

to answer your questions.

1. Magnification through the webcam is fixed. Its the focal length of the webcam / focal length of the scope ( roughly). I believe the philips is the equivelent to a 6mm eyepiece. I think you could use a focal reducer to lower this high magnification, however im not fully sure about that. It is fully possible im wrong there and there is no way to reduce the magnification.

2. Webcam settings depend on the software you are using to capture the image. Im using AmCap that came with the nexImage webcam from celestron. It gives you control over brightness, contrast, shutterspeed and a number of other areas. I found shutter speed was the main control i used, and lowering it allowed me to see detail that was otherwise washed out. I believe AmCap is free to download. Do a search on google and see what it turns up.

3. A new finderscope!! No, Get a telrad. I use it explicitly. I never use a finderscope. a telrad finder, and telrad charts are unbeatable IMO.

Thanks for the tips - I'll grab Amcap later. Also will look up telrad finders and figure out what the deal is there...

I'm working at home today, so took a bit of time this morning to figure out what was wrong with my finderscope - its a lot better now, but still not up to much (too much free play - if you tap it, it moves out of alignment again -well, you get what you pay for

All aligned now, webcam attached, will try again later, weather permitting...

Remove the EP and tape the cam lens to the scope?

OK i hadnt thought of that. It would make things easier (removing the EP).

I'll try that next time.