Often the solution is to use an analogue video camera and a TV screen or a camera and a computer on which to display the video stream.
I experiment here with the idea of modifying a DashCam as a stand-alone electronic eyepiece having its own built in screen. The device I experimented with was a cheap (£29.99) DashCam from Amazon.
Needless to say, this modification will invalidate the warranty, so it is essential to test the camera to make sure it is working, before any modification is attempted.
This camera has a 3 inch screen on the back, which is just large enough to be useful for this modification. A larger screen would be better, but would also be commensurately more expensive.
An degree of brute force was required to separate the outer cylinder from the two pillars to which it was attached. There was no clue how this part was constructed, so there was an element of luck involved. The pillars were cut off as they would have been in the way later on.
The lens was attached via a standard 12mm webcam thread but had been glued in place to hold the focus of the camera during the inevitable vibrations experienced by a DashCam. The glue was chipped away using a sharp blade, until the lens could be unscrewed.
A standard Mogg adapter was screwed into the eyepiece thread. The IR cut filter is part of the lens assembly, so a separate filter will be required to get the correct colour balance. In this case, an IR filter removed from an old webcam was attached inside the bottom of the Mogg adapter. However, a low cost UV/IR cut filter could have been screwed onto the end of the adapter.
IR cut filter from an old webcam glued at the bottom of the Mogg adapter was added later.
The camera was then ready for testing on the Moon, in this case, using a 127mm Maksutov on an AZ GOTO mount.
It will be noticed that in the photograph above, there is a blue tinge to the camera screen. This is not a true representation of what the eye sees. LCD screens produce a light that is rich in the blue and photographs of these screens almost always amplify the blueness of the image that the eye doesn't see. The best way to photograph a CCD screen that is displaying an essentially monochrome image such as that of the Moon, is to photograph the screen in B/W as in the two images below.
The screen is displaying the Copernicus/ Kepler region of the Moon in this shot.
In this shot, Palus Somni can clearly be seen
The modification clearly works and the next step is to test how successful it is at a star party. Although the camera has an internal battery, it can be powered from the same power pack as the AZ GOTO mount on which the telescope is mounted.
