No seeing for me

Well I got the new scope almost 2 weeks ago but have only had it out 2 times. The weather has been bad or I've been away from the house. The one other night I brought it out the mirror fogged over and it was completely useless. Kinda sucks since I was really hoping to use it tonight. Well maybe I'll have better luck tomorrow.

Logitech C200 modded for telescope

Along with the telescope I wanted to be able to take some pictures of the things I saw in the night sky. I'm not really worried about superb they would be, just would like to have some pictures. If I really get into astrophotography then I'd get a dedicated rig setup but for now this will do. I took a $15 Logitech webcam and removed the lens. Then I took an old pill bottle and cut it in half. The threaded part fits nicely into a 1.25" eye piece holder and when you're not using you can put the cap back on as a lens cap to keep out the dust. I used electrical tape to secure it down and help keep out the light. I'm hoping to get some pictures tonight if the weather and clouds stay clear. Here's the mod.

Dis assembly is easy. There is a plug on one side that is removed leaving a screw underneath. Remove that screw and the cam pulls apart with no force. That's it!

Here's everything not needed.


The camera minus the lens.


The camera taped to the pill bottle


And the finished product. I was looking at a mailbox by the brown truck. See if you can spot it.


And here's what I saw through the scope.

Red dot sight rail

I got a nice Father's Day present this year, a Celestron Astromaster 114EQ. I've had it about 4 days now and still haven't been able to use it but I'm hoping that tonight will be better and I can go out. While it's a nice scope the red dot finder isn't that great, although I've only used it once and I really should give a second chance. Well I've added a sight rail to the scope and mounted a Daisy red dot sight. Pretty easy to do and cost less than $10 altogether. Here's the build:

Materials include 1/4" threaded rod, 9/32" aluminum tubing, and 1/2" brass sheet.


The Daisy red dot sight taken from my old paintball gun.


The brass plate


Aluminum tubing cut to 'sleeve' the threaded rod.


The finished product.



My wife said it was a nice build so I think I didn't do half bad. Hope you enjoy.

Back... again..

It's been almost a year and a lot has happened. Time to start adding stuff again. Time to get back running. Time to get back cycling. Time to get into my latest hobby, amateur astronomy. So I'll be updating more often now.