afocal photography...
now let's see what can be achieved with the A40 and a telescope.

on the late 90s, Meade Instrument Corporation - well known makers of telescopes - hit the 'jackpot' with their ETX Astro Telescope (better known as ETX90), it's a 3.5inch Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope that appealed to the
masses with its ease of use, portability, looks and capabilities - hence it really sold like hotdog (or hotcake?). One astronomer - Mike Weasner - bought the telescope, created a dedicated ETX website and the rest was history. with the immense popularity of the ETX-90 from the late 90s, it now has its own family called the ETX series.

i myself is an owner and created my astrophotography site with the ETX.

what can be seen from the viewfinder when using the ETX can be captured by a camera and it is called the afocal technique. here's an image on how to do it - borrowed from Jerry Lodriguss's Catching the Light website:

i once tried this method when viewing the moon one night with the mighty ETX, took the A40 and snap some moon shots - and here are two of them:


these are tweaked images and unlike the picture of afocal photography shown above - i was just holding the a40 while aiming at the ETX's viewfinder hence the images are not that sharp.