Yesterday a co-worker had an old Korean War spotting scope torn down for cleaning. We still use them in our tracking telescopes. This one was from an old hand tracker that the US Navy used for aiming the ships guns. Anyways the main optic was nasty from being stored in the weather for 55 years. He had a new old stock glass to install and was going to pitch the old one. It looked for all the world like a landscape meniscus to me, so I dug it out of the trash and put it in my pocket. I held a ground glass behind it in a darkened room and looking out of doors I determined that it was about 375mm f5. Very usable for LF. After everyone went home I went down to where the ABS pipe fittings are kept and discovered it would almost fit in the small end of a 3" male adapter. I chucked the ABS in a lathe and removed material until my glass would fit nicely. I cleaned up the rest so it didn't look like waste pipe fittings. This morning at home I discovered the 3" IP thread would just start in a 14" Cooke flange. I mounted that puppy on the old Kodak 2D 6.5X8.5 and made some pictures in the garden this AM. Here's the first fruit.
snappy cars and fast boats
snappy cars and fast boats
