Great stuff, Willie. Your results bear out what I have said previously about direct image capture being superior to off tape, despite the fact that off tape is better methodology for astrovideography. My only point is regarding your first statement on lens extremes. This really is something that each person should thoroughly test. As a rule of thumb, I would use your definition -- don't use the extremes -- unless you know what you are doing. In optics one may find that a lens is equally good throughout its range but will often show a preference to one extreme or the other. Zoom lenses are very complex and as a result must be a compromise over fixed optics. For this reason, one may find the wide angle sharp and the telephoto slightly softer. You don't want a soft wide angle because it looks just plain poor so designers tend to favour this area. Often the slightly softer telephoto is not obvious because you are zooming in on the subject and the larger image offsets the softness and appears to be equally sharp. As usual, there are always exceptions, so check your equipment out using the test Willie shows at his site. It is simple yet very effective and easy for anyone to accomplish. Well done Willie Scotty Henderson