[mental4astro (Alexander)]

I disagree with you Trevor.

It comes down to actually seeing something in the middle of Sydney or not in this case.

But, you also flippantly mention YouTube. A couple of years back I volunteered to show the night sky to kids in NSW's only kids palliative hospital. I took my modest little C5 & my 17.5" dob, along with a modified webcam just on a hunch I had. I did not even assemble the dob that night. What that little webcam & C5 showed those no YouTube clip can replace. Those kids had no hope in hell of looking into an eyepiece. You tell those kids that they were ripped off when they saw Saturn come into view, the image shaking slowing coming to a standstill. Tell them they may as well look at a DVD when we were able to slew the camera to different parts of the moon. The thrill these kids had that night of actually seeing a scope, even a little C5, tell them to go see a YouTube clip. Tell them their experience was a fraudulent one. After what I experienced that night, I have never questioned the legitimacy, value & power of a video camera as useful tool in astronomy.

One's experience at a telescope is not cheapened if a camera is needed. Folks are smart enough to understand what a live image is. It is not ripping them of if this is the only way to show them a galaxy. As things stand now at Onservatory Hill, you have no chance in appreciating any galaxy, let lone the full expanse of M42, or even Omega Centauri to what it can really offer. To say otherwise is not understanding the situation of both the observatory & its night sky - this, coming from a die hard visual man.

A video camera also doesn't mean no direct viewing through the scope - the Moon & planets don't require a camera. But it makes all the difference in both seeing a DSO, AND appealing to the younger generations who best relate to a monitor than an eyepiece. It is easy to forget that a novice's eyes cannot see what we can!