Posts Made By: Chase McNiss

David,

A Carolina Wren, what was your nice image taken with?

C

Really nice, I was expecting to fly right out of my monitor.

Thanks for sharing,
C

Here is a perspective image showing the distance the eagle was as seen through a 70mm telephoto on my DSLR, the eagle is in the box at the center

Ivan,

Very nice setup!

What kinda weight are you using to offset the binoviewer?

Thanks for sharing,
C

Second image

August,

My quess and that's all it will be would be an adult Sharp Shinned Hawk. I am basing by guess on the shape of the head and the length of the tail. Overall size would be another indicator but that would be hard without something to campare your image to.

Nice images, thanks for sharing.
C

I have backpacked for over 30 years now and when it comes to carrying any thing optical in the field I lean toward weather proof gear. I also do a small amount of birding and have taken my Pentax 65ED out and used it for Astronomy when backpacking. It is lightweight and mounts easily on a lightweight tripod. It come with its own padded tight fitting case and if you upgrade to the XL Pentax zoom or fixed fl eyepieces you have a great combination. Nice thisg about the Pentax spotters is that they take 1.25 astro eyepiece, so you can take out a cheap eyepiece when you think the weather will be iffy. I use a strap on Rigel finder for a finder.

Its a birder during the daytime, and can be used for digiscoping and then it is a telescope at night.

It gets used more than all my other scopes because of this. Next would be my TV76 as a travel scope and grap and go scope. The my C102F for planets and my 8" SCT for lunar and planetary imaging or binoviewing of the planets. For deep sky I go to my clubs darksky site and use the club 16" dob.

Cheers
Chase

If I am observing at a truely darksky site, I can observe with both eyes open with little distraction. Observing in my yard with the increased light pollution requires that I close one eye. I have been practicing using either eye, I find my right eye affords a sharper image even after refocusing, but I cannot seem to get as large a field of view through my right eye. I find binoviewing very relaxing with the ability to have both eyes open. Really enjoy observing the moon that way.

Chase