Anybody here using wifi digital telescope eyepieces?

[rcjordan]

>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.

<+>

The AI bird identification was subscription, we nixed that.

[Travoli]

>All work well & run entirely off solar.

Very cool!

>subscription

of course

[ergophobe]

>> 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.

[ergophobe]

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

[rcjordan]

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.

[ergophobe]

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.

[Drastic]

Very cool. I think I'll get one of these so it'll encourage me drag my 12" dobsonian out of the garage.

[rcjordan]

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.

[ergophobe]

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.

[rcjordan]

> 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.

[ergophobe]

https://idelta.co.in/welcome/blog_detail/NTA=/How-to-Remotely-Control-Your-iPhone-Camera-With-or-Without-an-Apple-Watch

[rcjordan]

$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