SONY ccd cam corder question

I humbly ask for your advice since I am new to the astrophotog scene. Here's my question (in one whole breath), after straining my eyes reading for hours for the last few nights about all of the options and comparisons in this field, I am wondering if I am over looking a usable tool that I already own. My video camera is a sony ccd trv65 and has alot of features built in it, the lens is f4.1 and has an optical zoom of 18x, it also has steady shot. I want to use it in conjunction with a tv monitor for real time viewing since it is way more sensitive than my eyes, and also I don't want to go out and buy $7,000 worth of equipment if I can get quality images and info out of this thing. Can anyone offer advice on what to do if you were me? ccd is out (no lap top) and digital camera is a last resort. thanks -GK-

George -

Larry's comments are very good. The webcam is a very versatile way to go for planetary/lunar/solar imaging at a low (camera) cost. But the camcorder (assuming it is a lightweight miniDV variety) might be a way for you to get your feet wet with plantetary imaging. Scopetronix probably has an adapter that will provide a solid connection from your Sony camera to an eyepiece for afocal imaging. You can record a lot of video on tape without filling your hard drive with webcam streams. You can then bring the camera inside and attache via firewire to a desktop computer and capture the highest quality streams to the computer (I use Imovie on a Mac for this) and process with a stacking program as you would with webcam streams.

There may be optical compromise imaging through an eyepiece and the camcorder lens vs. barlow projection with a webcam. But it is a workable alternative and might suit you if you have the camcorder and don't have a laptop with lots of empty hard disk space.

clear skies -
Alan Friedman