Cool, thats reasonably good news Steve. Of course when I think about it, I'll be able to get a better idea whether its truely possible before I even get a Mallincam by testing the tracking with a webcam. Anyone know the effective focal length of a Philips SPC900 and the Mallincam?? If they are similar then I could practice tracking with the webcam with K3CCDTools on screen crosshairs and get some idea whether its a non starter or whether its worth further investigation.

Actually is there some freeware software I could use with the webcam to measure drift. Then I could come back to you guys with some numbers and you might be able to tell me whether those figures are good enough for Mallincam use??

Like I said, this would be the ideal scenario.

For private casual Visual observing - TNT tracking

For F15+ Planetary Imaging with a webcam or future Imagesource cam - Platform Tracking with rough compass and spirit level alignment with TNT used for vibration/backlash/overshoot free Drift correction.

For Visual Public Outreach - Platform tracking with rough compass and spirit level alignment. DSC inaccuracy with platform doesn't matter because Public Outreach is generally Moon, Planets or Bright easy to find DSO's and where I need to slew back and forth from object to object quite often. TNT use in this scenario would mean a lot of manual speed corrections. Platform is more preferable here because visual use only requires a rough alignment and then the tracking is constant without need for adjustment no matter where I slew the scope.

For Private or Outreach Mallincam use - The ideal would be TNT tracking only. Like I said, Intelliscope DSC works flawlessly in combo with TNT and less to setup or pack too.