Advice needed

Hi,
When I started imaging not quite a year ago, I jumped straight into deep sky imaging with an ST8, and am still working on the long learning curve associated with that, but would also like the ability to do the moon and planets. I understand there's multiple ways of going about this, use filters with my ST8, or get a seperate webcam setup. I'll be useing my 4"f/8 APO and EM200 to start with, I have been using the ST8's auto-guiding chip instead of a seperate guide scope. I've also been told I could use my 14.5" f/4.3 dob and equatorial table, if it can track well enough to keep the image on the chip long enough for the AVI. Any thoughts welcome.

Couple quick comments:

ST8 vs. webcam: At least in my experience it is critical to
get 10 or 15 frames per second to track the image motion due
to seeing. I don't know if an ST8 can do that. Webcams
certainly can and are cheap -- $80 to $100.

Scope: The 4" F8 is probably too small to get good detail
on planets. I'd go with the 14" on the EQ platform right away.
You only need to keep the planet on the chip for about
1 minute (though of course, longer is better). So the
alignent of the platform is not too critical. And you can
do a couple "practice" runs, see which way the planet goes,
and tweak the platform alignment. Usually 3 or 4 runs
is enough to get the alignment very accurate. Slow-motions
in one or both axes helps.

Some sort of high-power finder scope or flip mirror
will help alot. The field of view of the CCD is pretty
small and getting the planet on there "blind" or with
1x finder is pretty frustrating. You can also switch
between eyepiece and webcam "by hand", but that gets old fast.

You want to operate around F/30 for most of these
webcams with 5-6 micron pixels. That means probably
a 5x barlow (PowerMate) for your scope, or some
eyepiece projection setup, or (last resort) stacking
some barlows.

Good luck!!