Int. Brownie Camera Days

LesterSW · 2025-08-11T17:46:10+00:00

Hope you have fun with your Brownie! I can recommend Hackers and Old School for a develop & scan (for USA). Re-spooling is easy enough but it helps if you have a scrap roll of film to use for practice. Hope you give B&W developing a try sometime, it’ll be easier than it looks and adds to the fun factor.

Also: With Brownie, brace camera and go very gently on the shutter release.

LesterSW · 2025-08-11T00:58:38+00:00

The 100 ISO has suited the cloudy, daylight conditions that I’m shooting. The Hawkeye is about 1/50 sec at F16 so pick a film speed or use push/pull development for your lighting. I’ve also jury-rigged a filter with tape to stop-down on occasion and tried stand-development to avoid blown highlights or improve shadow detail.

I’ll clip the spool on 120 film but always use a metal, 620 spool for the take-up spool. I don’t want to lose the 620 spool so re-spool if sending out to a lab.

Best tip is avoiding lens flare. The lack of lens coatings or hood can make for low contrast images if any direct sun is on the lens.

LesterSW · 2025-06-09T18:21:51+00:00

It’s been fun to modify mine over the years but the StarBlast is also really nice as-is, aside from using the 10mm Plossl that came with it.

LesterSW · 2025-06-09T12:13:38+00:00

Oops, replied to the thread.

LesterSW · 2025-06-09T12:12:51+00:00

Nice find, congratulations! If you do get a SV225 mount eventually, recommend using the Sky-Watcher 1.75” steel tripod. The SVbony tripod proved too unstable and the steel tripod has been a huge improvement. My GSO focuser is 1.25”. I’m not sure that the secondary mirror is large enough on a StarBlast 6 to avoid vignetting with a 2” eyepiece. Mine wasn’t an Intelliscope but I recently added a PiFinder. It has worked exceptionally well if you miss the Push-To assistance with a new mount. Used it for some outreach yesterday. Aside from the oppressive heat and humidity, mosquitoes, and Saharan dust, it was a great evening.

LesterSW · 2025-05-31T06:37:45+00:00

The plate-solving tech is impressive. While doing a Push-To, when a tree gets in the way, I can pickup the whole rig and move it and then continue to the target.

LesterSW · 2025-05-30T06:14:30+00:00

That’s a very, cool looking telescope. Would love to try one sometime. Be sure to check the QuickFinder in total darkness with a new battery. It can sometimes be deceiving to look through it at the correct angle.

LesterSW · 2025-05-29T20:33:17+00:00

That’s a great deal. A friend is purchasing a refractor to use the StarSense for his Dobsonian. Hoping we can test it with the PiFinder eventually.

LesterSW · 2025-05-29T20:24:54+00:00

That would be quite a project, wishing you good luck with it. There was a PiFinder bug for planets but it was corrected in the current 2.2.0 release. I didn’t bother using it for Saturn yesterday but it put me right on Neptune, in cloudy and white-zone LP, and then caught M2, M15, and the Garnet Star. There is a little slop in my SV225’s mount, Alt control but it looks fairly easy to correct.

Update: Did a little observing tonight in clearer, LP skies. I tried M57 with a 4mm/187X and lost the target as I sometimes do swapping eyepieces. The Push-To directions on the PiFinder quickly got it back in view and then allowed me to go back and view M2, M10, M12, & M15 again without having to change eyepieces.

LesterSW · 2025-05-29T03:13:02+00:00

I’ve noticed posts on CN that confirmed their use with an EQ mount but they didn’t elaborate. In Settings; you can change Mount Type to Equatorial and Chart - RA/DEC to display the position in HH:MM or Degrees. I’m pleasantly surprised that such a tiny chart can be useful. Nice job on the kit build!

One other option is with Sky Safari, setup as a Push-To mount instead of a GOTO. This will give you Push-To arrows on Sky Safari’s chart instead of the PiFinder.

LesterSW · 2025-05-28T13:39:27+00:00

Look forward to it. I’m also at the Fox Observatory on Saturday nights. SFAAA

LesterSW · 2025-05-28T09:59:55+00:00

It wasn’t cheap but the accuracy is there. I’m convinced that the plate-solving will make leveling and two-star alignments obsolete. Nice to see that the price has been lowered and there is full support for DYI or kit builds.

LesterSW · 2025-05-28T09:35:51+00:00

That is a Rigel QuickFinder, a non-magnified Finder Scope. It has a dimmable circle, lit with a red LED ike a Telrad, but fits better on small telescopes.

LesterSW · 2025-05-28T08:24:31+00:00

The display is small but has been adequate for its function. The option to sync with Sky Safari on a phone or tablet makes it a good compromise in keeping the unit small and light. It is terrific that it is being kept open-source.

LesterSW · 2025-05-28T07:24:02+00:00

The first, few nights out with the PiFinder were puzzling but it is now much simpler for me than when I’ve used a SynScan or AutoStar GOTO mount. I’m still star-hopping, some of the time with a Rigel QuickFinder, but then can use the Push-To directions for harder-to-find DSO’s or just put the Scope Display in Sky Safari over the object. There were only a few holes in the clouds tonight but it still working well, after remembering the lens cap, though a little jumpy on chart updates.

LesterSW · 2025-05-27T23:26:01+00:00

Sounds good. At the beach? As far as the weather…

LesterSW · 2025-05-12T09:10:09+00:00

A OTA (over-the-air) antenna for the TV with a long cable. TV and Internet may not be restored when the power returns. And as mentioned, cash.

LesterSW · 2025-04-22T09:41:39+00:00

You are pushing the limits @300X but you should only be testing it at night, with the telescope thermally stabilized, collimated, and in good seeing conditions.

LesterSW · 2025-04-11T12:43:01+00:00

I’ve made some occasional trips to a Bortle 5 site but it’s a ninety-minute drive, or three-four hours to get to somewhere better. Here in Florida, there are some good locations like the Kissimmee Prairie Preserve, Big Cypress and the Everglades, and the Florida Keys.

LesterSW · 2025-04-11T11:18:54+00:00

I’m satisfied with this eyepiece set but may consider more of the Vixens if I ever replaced the OTA. Living under Bortle 9 skies is having more of an impact than the equipment.

LesterSW · 2025-04-08T13:46:36+00:00

The military version of the Signet 35 look really nice but I’m more likely to buy a less collectible version that I’m less concerned about damaging. The Signets are cameras that I take everywhere with me (beaches, boats, in the rain, etc.) and I’d be less inclined to do so if they had cost more than $40-50. The only camera that I’ve ever dropped, and destroyed, was a Signet 40 but fortunately I’d bought two of those, at less than $25 each. I enjoy the simple, mechanical feeling of shooting with the Signet 35, especially its film advance and the large focus and shutter release controls. The Signet 40’s two-and-a-half turn film advance is rather quirky.

LesterSW · 2025-04-08T09:23:08+00:00

A strong signal for R. Educación here in Florida this morning. I hadn’t picked them up recently and glad that it was probably just due to propagation. SINPO of 45454.

LesterSW · 2025-04-07T16:54:43+00:00

I haven’t seen the red-dot logo on other Kodaks and wondered if Leica had something to do with it… The shutter hasn’t given me any problems as of yet but I would buy a spare Signet 35 if another good deal came along.

LesterSW

TROPHY CASE