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A bit of fun with a PVC pipe and some bits
A rainy few days have sent me into the depths of my shed where the odds and ends are 'stored'. I had a 90mm doublet with a short focus (500 mm) that I was busting to do something with and had been stung into action by seeing what Jeanette had achieved at Barambah recently with 70mm and a Cube - and all my expensive gear was useless (or maybe it was me).
I also had a good focuser from a Newt that just needed a bit of a modification to fit a refractor, a Philips 820 web cam (not the sexy 840 or 900 series I admit), a couple of spare magnifier lenses for Swan security cameras, one of those sexy red/green reticle sighting scopes for rifles/pistols etc and a length of sewer pipe - 105mm PVC. Above all this, my brother had a perfectly good lathe standing idle. A dangerous combination for a project.
The result is a decent little scope with a usable webcam modified to take either the straight Swan lens and act as a little telephoto/widefield or to do prime focus. These handy little devices have a good IR filter built in so it promises to be a useful guidescope or even a moon-lens or something similar.
All I need now is some clear weather.
Here are a few pics.
Peter
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