When I was young I adquired a microscope that It work with a small ball of glass. By far, the best microscope that I own until then. Great quality and easy to work with it. Sadly, I lost the ball in a moment that I tried to unmount it in order to clean it. I'm thinking to buy a ball (several...) and...

The best support for a smartphone is the Celestron NEX YZ. It is not the cheapest bur they have "slow" movements in the 3 axis and this help to center the smartphone a lot.

If not, considere to buy a astronomical camera for planets. I used it and the results are very good

In none of my tests have I ever achieved an acceptable result. Attaching any lens demands near-parallel beam input, and that with the phones wide-angle lens is impossible without getting a lot of vignetting. Perhaps one day there will be phones with non-digital zoom, this may change.

For all these things, a 3D printer is your best friend

I've had two of these in my drawer for 30 years. Cut perfect circles, but below 15-20mm you may have to repeat the attempt several times

Tested! Yes, inverted is great lens!!! At 12mm fov maybe is my best lens in the big center area, without CA. In the borders it have a bit of distorsion. I will print a new adapter nex week. I tested it at 2.5 mm fov too and perhaps it not have the same resolution that a 12mm, but the field is more f...

The scanner was a ENVIVO brand. I don't know the quality.
Maybe you are right. This lens is designed for put a whole slide in a smaller chip. I will test it inverted this weekend

A friend has given me a slide scanner that can no longer be used because its drivers are for Windows7 (I hate computers because of these things). I have disassembled the scanner to recover the optics, thinking that a scanner must have a very good resolution to be effective. I have printed an M42 thr...

in my museum work I usually take photos on a black velvet background, with the object raised to blur the dust that the velvet may have, and placing white paper on the velvet, so that only a black ring can be seen through the camera. This way I keep the specular reflection of the edge of the object a...

An elegant solution, very easy to build. You've already told me what my next DIY project is going to be. I anticipate that next year I will have a lot of close-up photography work.

I found it!

http://clementfocuser.com/

Helical focusers always have a bit of image shift (I've been using and making telescopes for 40 years, I know a bit about this). There is no great solution for very low profile focusers, and that is the holy grail for users of Newton-type telescopes. The most affordable solution is to use a low-prof...

I recently added a Fuji mirrorless to my rig, and I'm finally happy with the vibration fix. My first tests are very promising. I'm especially happy because the equipment I'm using (except optics and camera, of course) is DIY. The electronics have been made by a friend and my stacking guide is still ...

I am fighting vibrations on my equipment now... Working with the x20 the vibrations produced by the shutter of my Pentax, even in Liveview, are enough to show a lost of detail. I will explain here if I am successful with my tests and modifications