The power supply that Nugent describes under "disadvantages" of other systems can be simplified. A power inverter that can handle 150 Watts from a car battery/autoplug can be purchased for about $70 and weigh only 2-3 pounds, much more manageable than the 15-lb. system mentioned by Ricard. However, these inverters are noisy, causing static on your short-wave radio, if that's what you use for accurate time signals such as WWV. It's difficult to shield these inverters to decrease that static. Also, if you use your car battery to power equipment for more than a few minutes, take care to avoid being stranded with a dead battery, by perhaps leaving the engine running (but that introduces more noise). Some observers use marine batteries, the 5.6-amp-h Portapac batteries, etc., to power their equipment.

Another alternative to the Sharp camcorder, and at least half the price, is the battery-powered VCR-TV combination units that are popular now with campers. Like a camcorder, you don't need extra connections. And these will run off of your car battery, so you don't need a noisy inverter, as described above. But these VCR-TV combo units are rather large, usually having 9-inch screens. That's good for the view, for seeing what you're recording. Although these can be easily transported in a car, they are too large for airplane travel; if you want to do that, then the Sharp camcorder is the most cost-effective solution that I know of.

I recently purchased a Sharp VL-AH13LU camcorder myself, but I could not find any dealer locally who had one, and had to go to the Web, using a "best cost" search engine to find one selling for $300. Unfortunately, manufacturers seem to now be concentrating on the more expensive digital camcorders, and the Sharp camcorders will probably become increasingly difficult to find. So if you want to duplicate Nugent's system, at least this part of it, then I suggest that you act quickly.

Nugent recommends an f/6.3 focal reducing lens, but for just a little more, about $150 from Focus Camera (and probably similar from some other Meade dealers), you can buy an f/3.3 focal reducing lens that will give you about 4 times the area, and almost a magnitude more sensitivity, than the more common f/6.3 focal reducing lens. The f/3.3 lens, built by Meade only for CCD and video systems, can not be used for visual observation, like the f/6.3 lens. But for video, the advantages are great.

Nugent recommends either the T-mount and C-mount adapters available from Orion and other dealers, or a specially-made adapter that shortens the system (I think that increases the field of view and sensitivity a little). But a version of the latter can be purchased from Adirondack Video for about $35, a C-to-1.25-inch eyepiece holder so the camera can be easily fitted into any eyepiece holder with just one small (just over an inch long) cylinder adapter. Some don't like it because the end of the adapter hits a focal reducing lens (if one is used, and we recommend it, see above) if it is fitted all the way into the eyepiece holder. In practice, I haven't seen a problem with that, and it can be avoided by not sliding the adapter all the way in.