Tonight I drove out to Skyview, it was a last minute descision, based on the clearing skies.
I arrived after sunset, I setup the C8 next to the observatory. My goal was test my new 10mm Televue radian against my Vixen lanthunum 10mm. I used Mizar for the test. On brightness of the object there was not a lot of difference but on sharpness of the image there was. The Radian did a better job of splitting the stars.
I had brought the ST120 and the Canon Digital Rebel XT which I had borrowed from work for the weekend. I switched out the C8 with the ST120 leaving the CG-5 live for this switchout. I didn't lose tracking or goto accurracy. I mounted the camera piggyback on the ST120 and took a bunch of 30 second exposures. I then tried taking some timed exposures using my stop watch and bulb mode on the camera. The results were not half bad given the high winds at the time. I posted two of the images on my website under Deep Space Objects. I plan to get a Digital SLR cameras, it was far easier to use than my Coolpix.
I left at 9:30pm, seeing was deteriorating and the wind was getting worse.