Hi Ken and Salvatore,

My name is Robert, the currently jobless RAC "webmaster",
living in Nanjo-City, the Wild South of Okinawa.

If you have a military address on this island then any
shipment can be treated as US national freight.

Since I am not related to US military, I have chosen a
Celestron Nexstar 5i which offers a favorable combination
of aperture and portability. Celestron ships worldwide.
Nowadays, the larger Nexstar SE 6 has the same price tag.

My workhorse is a Watec N120 mounted with second hand
camera lenses and connected to a TV monitor via a composite
video cable. An old Celestron Nexstar GT mount upgraded with
the latest handcontrol firmware performs tracking and GoTo.

This monochrome CCD camera is identical with the StellaCam II
(http://www.astrovid.com/prod_details.php?pid=6)
The newer model, StellaCam III, comes with even more impressive
specifications.

However, this setup is not suitable for planetary observation
and photography where USB webcams come in more handy.
The Watec/StellaCam is best for deep sky and wide field observations
while you could enjoy the sky with your family in front of the TV :-)

Just another equipment idea.

As for the duration of clear sky intervals, I am as helpless as you
are. Actually, I am growing vegetables and performed rain dances
since this area didn't see any noteworthy rain for two months :-)

Cheers
Robert




--- In RACAstronomy@yahoogroups.com, "Hiroshi- desu!"
<samuraiken@...> wrote:
>
> Salvatore,
>
> Nice to meet you!
> Currently i do not have a telescope with which to use, and am
having a bit
> of trouble finding a company that will ship one here (Meade
apparently has a
> policy with all it's dealers that it will not ship to other
countries
> outside of the US). What kind of equipment do you have? I've been
using my
> digital camera on some clear nights to take some 1 minute
exposures, and
> while some of it looks pretty nice, it's still pretty limiting on
what you
> can see with it. I live near camp courtney, and while there's a
bit of
> light pollution there, it's not very hard to just romp off
somewhere near a
> farm and start gazing up at the sky. If only it would stay clear
for more
> than a day!
>
> Ken
>