scope and sphere

My camera's viewscreen freezes from the moment the shutter button is pressed. The image remains frozen for several seconds. As for the intended photograph, the image capture takes place in some undiscernable moment between those five seconds (or years!). The more pics I have on that disc (yes, disc), the longer it takes. That makes it almost impossible to capture anything that is moving, like cars or birds, especially when using the zoom.

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So, from spare parts, I fabricated a simple scope. It's just a flash mount and hollowed-out shell from a mechanical pencil. There is a little wiggle in it, so it needs to be calibrated before I use it, but it came in handy last night.

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I was taking pictures of the moon for the next Sky Watch Friday. Everything was fine, until I got to the last picture. It was too dark to find the reddish moon in the camera's viewfinder! Click, I mounted the scope, aimed it at a floodlight for calibration, and voila! Now I could take a good aim in the dark.