Digital camera and Mars

Hi Everyone; I've been enjoying all the wonderful photos of Mars on this forum, and although I've been an avid observer for over 40 years, I just recently bought a beautiful Olympus C-740 digital camera and have this question to ask. I found out just now that I can easily fit the camera into an extention tube and mount it in the drawtube of my 6" refractor. There would be no eyepiece in the drawtube but the lens is a ten power optical zoom. Would this alone be enough magnification to get a usable image of Mars? I plan on actually trying it out but the weather on the east coast lately has been dismal to say the least. Thanks in advance for any info. Gerry Feulner

Yes, you can get very pleasing images of Mars...even multiples for stacking. But I am not sure what you are asking. If you want to use your camera in the afocal configuration, you will need to use an eyepiece and adjust the optical zoom for best position.

You can hold the camera manually, use a camera bracket or buy fancy adapters. See this link for the Nikon Coolpix in a similar mode:

http://www.stargazing.net/david/Nikon990/afocalcoupling.html