Huh. I sent three messages yesterday (or was it Friday?) and
only two appear to have gotten to the list. Just as well, perhaps,
as the thread I was posting to appears to have have died out
anyhow.
Yesterday I drove out to deliver wedding proofs (the couple liked
best the same shots I liked best -- not the posed ones that were
their main point in hiring me, but the exchange of rings during
the ceremony -- thank you very much, my good friends TMZ, 100-300
zoom, and monopod!), and was quite delayed escaping from their
subdivision when we were finished, due to an attack of dragonflies,
one of whom just _insisted_ on posing no matter how close I got
with the macro lens. :-) I failed to get any in flight, alas,
but I'll be posting a couple of the perched shots later.
Then, since it was more or less sortakinda ... -ish ... in the
same direction, I dropped in on my mother and youngest brother.
Where, as I was leaving to go home, a bat taunted me. (Yes, I
tried; no I didn't get it -- even shooting at 28mm, he kept
managing to get just outside the frame as I fired -- back to
practicing on chimnney swifts.)
Anywho, my brother let me borrow his spare telescope. A "$45
Wal-Mart telescope", he said. It's a 700mm f/11.7, and he also
handed me a 2X teleconv^H^H^H^H^H^H^H uh, Barlow tube for it.
This afternoon I finally located the K-mount telescope/microscope
adaptfier that I remembered having been given *mumble* years
ago and had never had a chance to use before. Fun, if a bit
soft (go figure) and awkward because things don't really quite
fit right. I'm still working out focussing with it, and I have
to grip the ... "draw tube"? at a certain spot to make sure I
don't wind up pushing it too far into the adaptor and bumping
the camera's mirror (an error I've so far avoided, but seriously
dread). So now, in addition to all my other projects, is making
an adaptor-adaptor, or drilling (and tapping) holes in the adaptor
for set-screws to attach it securely to the telescope and make
sure that the telescope doesn't damage the camera. But the
telescope-tripod mount will make building a windowsill-clamp-thingie
easier, since I just need to bore a hole the right diameter in
the "shelf" part of the bracket when I get around to building it.
I'm also thinking I should build a telescope-tripod to camera-tripod
adaptor, because I think the tripod that came with the scope is a
bit more stable than my camera tripod.
Now to find out whether it's too soft for helicopters at one mile.
I don't know how _useful_ this is going to be, but whether it
winds up being a handly tool or not, it'll be a fun toy for a
while.
-- Glenn
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