like so:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0F7R1TCDF
I've ordered this one to play with but I'd like to cast the image (preferably via lan) to an ipad
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FFLHTJ27
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My dream setup would be to have the spotting scope totally remote controlled locally. Focus, pan, tilt.
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We have a fair amount of wildlife in the back yard and out on the river, most within 100 meters. Easily viewable from the den but full digital control would be a nice feature for the lazy.
The one I've ordered does get decent reviews for low light.
Sometimes, you guys suck for answers. hhh
I did get intrigued and I did look on Amazon... but no. Not using such a thing.
I have thought about adding more cams though. The neighbor recently got a mountain lion on her cam.
We have aa big, lanky fox. I think it may be living in one of my boats. Too many squirrels to count. Deer in the hedgerow or sleeping in the side yard. The was a mink or very young river otter running along the bulkhead a few months ago (adult river otters can be the size of a long, plump dachshund). Too many birds to count, but dominated by cardinals & jays --except they don't scare Carolina Chickadees, those fight waaaay above their weight class. Buffleheads were passing through last week.
I've heard we've always had bobcats ever since I was a kid, but in all my outdoors-ness when I was young I've never spotted one. No cougars, though, and coyotes are rare in my neighborhood.
There is an ebb and flow.
We always have quite a few deer. For a while we had a lot of deer. I'd see 10 in the yard. We also had coyotes come through all the time and at night they would howl like there were hundreds (but a single coyote can sound like a dozen, so the "hundreds" were probably 6-8).
Then I started seeing a lot of mountain lion/cougar tracks and deer and coyote populations fell. I rarely see a coyote here now, and even the mountain lion tracks are fewer. I think when the deer/coyote population was high, we had a trio that roamed the area, but now tracks are less common and the deer seem to be coming back.
A bit of research and it turns out that a large number of coyote deaths are caused by mountain lions. I think it was 40%. Hat tip to the other article you posted today... getting eaten is, for a coyote, dying of natural causes and dying of old age all in one.
We occasionally see bobcats and foxes. I see the tracks a lot.
Bears are a lot more common than bobcats or foxes though.
And squirrels... we have a few varieties. My wife is obsessed with the Douglas Squirrel. Her favorite animal. They are amazing.
We keep the binocs by the largest window, but nevertheless... no wifi eyepiece or spotting scope
This is what I have. Bought it in 2013 ($160), it's been good.
Decent views of ducks, otters, etc up to 250m. It'd be good for the meadows and gorges around your area if you see one on FM for cheap
Celestron 52250 Ultima 20-60x80mm Angled Refractor Spotting Scope Telescope with Multi-Coated Optics, Waterproof Rubber Tubing and Soft Carry Case
https://www.amazon.com/Celestron-20-60x80mm-Refractor-Multi-Coated-Waterproof/dp/B0002CTZ70
> good for the meadows and gorges
Most commonly used to spot peregrines and climbers
I could have one at the coast for holiday guests, watching dolphins go by!
> Celestron 52250 Ultima
There is a Prime Deal on this scope + phone adapter for $212
https://www.amazon.com/Celestron-20-60x80mm-Refractor-Multi-Coated-Waterproof/dp/B07RQ3DS6F?th=1
Theresa happened to look over my shoulder when I was looking at the page, so it won't be a surprise, but she's excited.
It's a good, solid "beater" scope. That's a good deal with the phone mount, too. I wouldn't want to lose $200 but it's no where near as expensive as what I used to see people lugging around nor do I feel like I have to put it in a secret compartment somewhere to ensure no one will steal it.
It's been around for a good number of years now. That's a pretty good testament.
She's been looking and paralyzed by choice. You always get a bit more for a bit more. I took your word that this would be good enough, so that's done.
Monocular Telescope High Power,4K Electronic Eyepiece Camera with 3in Full Color Screen,Fits 22mm-46mm Optical Telescopes and Microscopes(4GB Memory Card) for Bird Watching Camping Astrophotography
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FFLHTJ27
For $60 (Camel says $50), this is a nice piece of kit. Good enough that I'm likely to buy a 2nd one after xmas. Read the reviews, one reviewer details the cons pretty well. I like a lot about the monocular. The cam is good for use as a view window but pushing the shutter button makes it difficult to take a photo.
Pix of the other side of the river, 2+ miles with good light. The squirrel & cardinal are 15m in overcast/drizzle. Focus is slightly sharper while just viewing, clicking the button caused tremors on the tripod.
This is a bit tough with wildlife photography, but you can use the old photographer trick - set a timer.
Normally in the SLR days you would use the B setting and a remote (either cable or wireless). Do the half click to move the mirror, wait for the camera to stop shaking from the mirror flip, then take the photo.
With mirrorless you can do the same with a timer and hope the bird doesn't move. In any case, most good bird pics are with a remote shutter control.
Slightly off-topic, but some of the bird feeders with built-in webcams are neat.
>feeders with built-in webcams
LPJ has 3 (1 dedicated to the hummingbird feeder). The girls gave her 1 full setup
https://www.amazon.com/NETVUE-Birdfy-Watching-Detected-Identify/dp/B09PNJMZX8
Setup was pretty much plug-n-play for that one.
It was nice enough that I bought her 2 solar-powered cams for the existing feeders,
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CR1LYY9L
I did, however set the app (and her phone) on the guest network. I also 3d printed some custom mounting brackets.
All work well & run entirely off solar.
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The AI bird identification was subscription, we nixed that.
>All work well & run entirely off solar.
Very cool!
>subscription
of course
>> AI bird identification was subscription
If it broadcasts sound, you can just open the Merlin app and have it ID the bird by its vocalizations (songs, calls, etc). Donationware. No subscription and 100% free if you don't want to donate.
Seek also IDs birds and other things visually by photo.
What neither of them will do is send you an alert: "Ivory-billed woodpecker at the feeder."
By the way, speaking of rare bird sightings - we have the only recorded sighting of a brown booby in the 400-mile long and 80-mile wide Sierra Nevada.
A friend shared a photo and and it found its way to ornithologists. The first ornithologist said we were smoking crack and had no idea what we were talking about and had undoubtedly taken the picture elsewhere and confused the sequence of pictures. "That looks like a tropical flower." To be fair, the plant was in the far background and a bit out of focus.
Well, said ornithologist was definitely not a botanist, because the tropical flower was a bush lupine. And my backyard climbing wall and sauna were visible in the photos. So we referred the whole thing on to the National Park Service ornithologist who knows us, knows what a lupine looks like, and knows what a climbing wall looks like. She straightened it all out and we are now in the annals as the only sighting ever in the entire Sierra Nevada range.
We had a morning visitor. I got other photos, but pulled back to show the window just as he was getting up from his rest
Our best buck sighting.... LPJ was driving that night, turned into our curvy driveway at a fair clip and the headlights panned the the front yard. About 50 ft from the front door a big buck was having his way with a doe and had a 2nd doe waiting.
That shot was yesterday BTW. Today the atmospheric river hit and I'm guessing that herd is having much less fun. After the massive storms of 2023, we saw deer that were too tired to get out of the road. They were just laying there as cars went by. Too tired to get up. Way too tired to climb the snowbanks and walk in the snow. I'm guessing a lot of deer died in those storms and shortly after.
One of our renters had the sighting I would covet. He had stayed to watch the headlamps come on up on El Cap and was driving back in the dark. There was a deer just standing in the road. Literally, a deer in the headlights, 50 feet away. He reached down to get his camera and as he was prepping for the shot, a tawny streak came from the right and took the deer out. He said the mountain lion took about 10 seconds to take the deer down and pull it off the road into the brush.
Very cool. I think I'll get one of these so it'll encourage me drag my 12" dobsonian out of the garage.
I'm on a scope fix-it-like-RC-wants-it binge. I bought 2 tall, sturdier tripods along with a couple of $10 ball-heads to try. The ball-heads were nice, but an 18mm ball just ain't going to give you any sort of granular control. So... Break out the 3d printer and go find something bigger to modify;
Heavy Duty Tripod Ball Head by Empiricus
https://www.printables.com/model/80243-heavy-duty-tripod-ball-head/files
NOW we're talking. 60mm ball!
I mounted the Celestron scope directly to the ball, no quick release.
But for the monocular I modified a thin -18mm overall assembled height- camlock quick release to fit very close to the top of the ball. I'm trying to keep the center of gravity as low as possible to minimize wobbles & shifting. Seems to work pretty well.
60mm ball is an interesting solution. We were thinking a video fluid head.
The small ball head even on a sturdy tripod make it hard to adjust easily.
> interesting solution
It works well enough for my casual use. No matter what drive type, finding a small flock of buffleheads 800m out & surrounded by miles of water isn't going to be fast. The digital eyepiece does help with that, though.
>Buffleheads
AND they are very active dippers. About the time I zero in on them the whole flock goes under.
I also conjured up a button trigger for the eyepiece.
https://idelta.co.in/welcome/blog_detail/NTA=/How-to-Remotely-Control-Your-iPhone-Camera-With-or-Without-an-Apple-Watch
$5
Amazon.com: [Upgraded] Bluetooth 5.0 Remote Shutter for iPhone & Android Camera Wireless Remote Control Selfie Button for iPad iPod Tablet, HD Selfie Clicker for Photos & Videos (Black) : Electronics
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084VTFS4X