Ok, so I got the right angle viewfinder and the flexible focus rod so I could use the scope near zenith. I need to get outside to align the viewfinder properly to a distant object (a magnet on the fridge from 20 ft doesn’t cut it), but the installation of the focus rod went off without a hitch.

I also received the 1.25 inch QuickCam adapter and after some searching online was able to figure out how open the case, remove the lens, and install the adapter over the CCD chip. I suppose it was naïve of me to believe I could simply plug it all in, open a window, and image something. J Apparently, (and now that I think about it, it makes total sense) the QuickCam will only be useful for imagine fairly prominent light sources (ie. Planets, the moon etc) as it is a crappy $50 camera to begin with.

I did manage to “image” the display on the cable box in the front room just to get some experience with the imaging and image stacking freeware I found. I still found it more comfortable to post-process the stack in Photoshop however.

I’m excited to try out the Barlow lens as well… anyway, we’ll see how it goes. I still haven’t fired up the AutoStar yet. Maybe tonight!