Hello,
I've posted several photos to the gallery taken with a homemade rig I threw together from old parts laying around. K. C. suggested I might post a note here with a link to one of my photos to show the things one might do on a tight budget and still get some reasonable photos. The "scope" is made from an old 500mm Soligor mirror lens I found in a closet. This was purchased in 1985 used so it is by no means a top of the line lens. I epoxyed a piece of pvc coupling from Home Depot to the back. I use a rubber plumbing drain connector (also from Home Depot) and some clamps to help hold a 32mm Orion plossel eyepiece to the pvc coupling on the lens. I epoxyed a 28 - 37mm step-up ring to the eyepiece so I could connect it directly to my Nikon coolpix 995 camera. This yields a small scope of about 16X which I can actually hand hold and get some decent shots. I also rigged a way to attach it to my tripod for better stability. I'll attach a photo of the rig. Here is a link to a photo taken recently through this scope:
http://www.birdforum.net/pp_gallery.../cat/500/page/1.
When I saw your 'rig' I thought it was ingenious - then I took a look at the image in the gallery and now I think you should be working for Swarovski!!! Designing scopes. Good work!!
Rick,
Ingenious is right! I've got to hand it to you for "making do". Great idea and Great results also.