I've been watching a western TV movie the last couple of nights "Broken Trail" and I enjoyed it, not just for the story, but the fabulous scenery. When I saw people flyfishing on the Snake River (?),I nearly started crying from homesickness. This western gal stuck in Chicago wants to go nack to her mountains and streams and, yes, do a little flyfishing again, but also birding, camping, photography, hiking and just plain sitting next to a campfire again and listening to the coyotes. Right now, I'd give a month's pay to see a Dipper working the rocks on a stream or just see a Sage Sparrow or Sage Grouse, Golden Eagle, mule deer or whatever. Guess you can take the gal out of the West, but they will never take the West out of this gal. Never.

I was at the lake on Sunday and noticed a Great Blue Heron on the shore that might allow a relatively close approach due to some intervening trees. I moved carefully, then took out my Pentax Optio A10 and zoomed it up to 3x optical and then 4x digital for a total of 12x. The results, though useable, were not really what I wanted due to the digital zoom component.

Since I was also carrying my Leica 10x25 Ultravid binocular around my neck, I said, "Why not?" I aimed the Leica at the bird, focused carefully, then held the Optio up to the binocular eyepiece. To get a little closer, I then zoomed to 2x optical on the camera, found the bird on the LCD screen and took a shot. At the combined 20x optical, the results were much better. Wasn't till I got home and downloaded the pic that I noticed the twig in the Heron's beak.

Click on the x to see the pic.

I had a lot of fun this weekend, digiscoping with my Kowa 663 and the TSE-21WD, 20x wide angle eyepiece. This eyepiece is not only a great eyepiece visually, it also works great for digiscoping.

With my image stabilized Pentax Optio A10 set at 2x optical, I was able to get full frame shots (no circular images)and some nice pics of waterbirds such as herons and egrets. Best of all, I did it by handholding the camera - no adapter. It's really nice to be able to just grab the camera when you need it, hold it over the eyepiece (some patience required for proper positioning)and fire away. The camera then goes back in the pocket and the scope is free for visual use. No adapter to remove from the camera or the scope.

It's a much different way of taking pictures than attaching a heavy SLR body to the back end of the scope. Got some nice photos over the years with this older technique, but nothing with the magnification I so easily get with digiscoping.

Not sure how bird photography can get any easier. I'll post a few pics as soon as I figure out how to get them attached here.

I'm sure this one will stump many users, but this is an excellent accessory for those who are using a spotting scope mounted on a conventional tripod for some astronomy. Since stars and planets are constantly moving out of the field of view, you must manually unlock the tripod head, refind the object, then lock down again. This also becomes a big problem at higher magnifications because you tend to over compensate, so it may take several tries to recenter the object.

The idea of adding a fine adjustment mechanism to a camera tripod is not new. I have been using them for years on my small Televue refractors. Problem with most slow motion accessories is they make the scope sit even higher off the tripod and cuase balance problems. The Vixen AM-FA-8798, though, is different. It has a very low profile and is also of high quality, as you would expect from Vixen. I have been using one for a few months on the rare clear nights around here to see wide angle views of open star clusters and it makes life a lot easier.