Guess what I got for my birthday???

[silvinator]

Let's see if anyone can guess. I will give you all the clue that was given to me by Le (my fiance):
"Orthodontics"

I will give you all till the end of the working day and then I shall reveal it... just thought it'd be something interesting (well, I hope it is!) to think about as we go about our mundane tasks at work... :D

[[1ponders]]

He got you braces:eyepop::lol:

[rumples riot]

An Orthoscopic lens?

[RapidEye]

He's gonna floss? (helps with his nasty breath)
:mad:

[toetoe]

I have trouble trying to say that word. :P

[silvinator]

lol :D
keep trying.
Paul (1ponders) can you believe that was my first thought! wouldn't that have been a nice surprise to wake up to :D

[slice of heaven]

Diamond tooth stud ?

[janoskiss]

A "toothless" focuser: a Crayford ... ? :confuse3:

[ving]

a bucket load of those teeth lollies? :D
some gaffer tape cause you talk too much at home? :P
speech recognition for a goto scope? :)
he punched you in the mouth!! :P :poke:

[asimov]

How bout a lil' clue silvie?? Astronomy related?

Sorry..."orthodontic" related..:ashamed:

[asimov]

Ummm. A 'lectric toothbrush?

[silvinator]

Ving, I'm not the one that needs gaffer tape methinks :P lol :D
In a way, it is astronomy related. Your guesses are really making my day at work go by a bit quicker.
Rapideye - Le laughed his head off when I told him what you guessed! :D He said that might have been just as good a present :rofl:

[atalas]

Well I want to get your hopes up and say a NAGLER ! :prey:



Louie :D

[asimov]

One of those little extendable round mirrors...possibly concave!!

[ving]

What Is It???? :)

Tell Us!!!

[silvinator]

not yet Ving! :P

[janoskiss]

Astronomy related, "in a way", huh? ... and tooth-straightening related too ... :confuse3:
...
I got it!

An intraoral camera that fits in the focuser!!

[ving]

how bout now?

i still say its voice recognition for goto.

[asimov]

An orthodontic "bonding brush" (can be used for flickin' bits of dust 'N stuff off the EPs as well)?

[silvinator]

Ok, ok. I think I've teased you all long enough :P

Le got me....wait for it....I'm really excited about this...
....

...

..

.

A brand spanking new Nikon D50 digital SLR camera!!! Woo-hoo!!! I hit the jackpot!!! I actually screamed when I opened up the package :D :D :D :D :D
It is what I've been wanting since I saw the review on dpreview (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond50/)
The little sneak told me I couldn't get one until the end of the year and all this time he was searching ebay for it.

We're still waiting for the lens to arrive (he bought the body only and bought a good lens seperately instead of going for the kit lens as the review said the new kit lens wasn't that great). I'm also waiting for a nikon t-ring to arrive and then I'll be all set to get some deep sky images! Can't wait!!! No more waiting for rotten film developers (who keeps telling me that all my photos are exposed wrong anyway and keep coming out too black... :doh: )

Oh, I didn't get the clue either but "orthodontics" and "cheese" would have made much more sense... :D

[Striker]

I was close...I was going to say a pair of handcuffs.

[[1ponders]]

:lol: WooooooHooooo :cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool ::cool: You lucky bugger. Congratulations Silvie. How did you manage to keep it a secret all day. You would have been busting to tell everyone. Excellent.


See we told you he was an alright boyfriend. :P

[janoskiss]

:mad2: I want one too! :mad2:

[silvinator]

:lol: @ Tony :)

You're right Paul - I have been absolutely bursting to tell you guys ever since Saturday :D And yeah, Le ain't so bad after all :P

The lens has cleared customs and I'm hoping will arrive tomorrow.

It's interesting to note that there has been so much hype over all the canon cameras (300d, 350d, 20d and 20da) and I have not heard one thing about the D50. Guess I'll be the guinea pig eh? I can't wait to test its long exposure capabilities. It's noise levels seem to be low from the dpreview site, but that's for "normal" photography. Hopefully, I can give you guys a full update/test report soon.

Any suggestions on what I should report on? What would you guys like to know about the D50 for astrophotography use (assuming you want to know at all...)? keep in mind also that I'm an absolute beginner when it comes to astrophotography. Still learning the ropes and haven't had much scope time either. But, I have one full week off from next monday so I've got some time on my hands :thumbsup:

Can't wait!!!

[RapidEye]

I got myself a Canon 300D for XMas and have had a ball with it since!!!

I did a lot of B&W 35mm stuff in HS and College, but sort of drifted away from it over the years. This DSLR stuff is just awesome and I'm back to having fun with the camera again!!!

One thing to keep in mind: storage is cheap!!!
When I just had my 35mm film camera, I'd maybe shoot 2-3 rolls on a weekend trip. Now, heck, I shoot over 500 shots =-) Even if your technique is rusty, the fact that you can shoot 10X more pictures means eventually, you'll get a good one :scared2:

I even bought a T-Ring for it and made my first attempt at astro work using my 10" Dob last weekend. I got some really nice moon shots that I'm still trying to stitch together into a 10 frame composite. (work keeps getting in the way).

Enjoy!!!:thumbsup: <G>

[iceman]

Nice one Silvie, you lucky buggarette. A DSLR is on my wish list, unfortunately i'll be wishing for a while yet!

I still don't get how orthodontics comes into it?

[[1ponders]]

Just smile and think "cheese" Mike

[iceman]

oh of course! :doh:

[Brendan]

hey silvie,
why to go on the B'day pressie.

looking forward to you sharing your first efforts with us all :thumbsup:

[ving]

you got some cheese? i dont get it! :confuse3:
:P

congrats silvie, when do we star seeing pics?

[silvinator]

Well folks, I finally got my lens yesterday after a wild goose chase. Apparently, our USPS tracking number told us there was an attempted delivery on Thursday 25th August at precisely 3:57PM. Well, I'm sure they didn't even attempt a delivery because three people were home at that precise date. What was even more suspicious was that they didn't leave a pick-up card. So we figured they either tried to deliver to the wrong address (keep in mind our street sign is actually missing but still, it ain't that difficult to read a map is it???) or that they sent it straight to the post office. On Friday night, USPS said it was at the local post office. So Le called all the local postal offices on Saturday but they all said they didn't have anything and we should try the main office on Monday morning. Well, they tracked it down by the afternoon to one of the local posties (it was one of the ones that said they didn't have it...). The Australia Post guy said it was probably in a different storage area because there was duty to pay on the lens. So we raced down there and there it was, in the "duties to pay" section - there all along since last Thursday!!!

Anyway, got home and I started firing away in our garden. And RapidEye, you are right. I absolutely love this camera! It is absolutely beautiful and the lens is just gorgeous! Pics came out so sharp and the background blur is beautiful. I will definitely be posting pics once I upload them to my unfinished website and rezise them etc... no time now as I have to go and play around some more with the camera... woo-hooo!!! It's my new favourite toy :D

Oh, the t-ring arrived as well but by the look of that jetstream Mike was talking about in the other thread, it doesn't seem likely I'll be doing any night sky test shots. Sorry folks.