Mak - Pretty ingenious. You do with what you have and all of us enjoy seeing them. Since I am out of state, your tweets are fun to get every morning too! I don't know how you did it, but try to brace everything as much as you can, and hold your breath when you take the pic.
Joyce
I have a couple more tips, if you haven't already figured them out, which may not apply depending on what kind of camera you have. If you have a camera with a flash, and you can turn the flash off, you should. Otherwise the camera sets the exposure based on the assumption that the flash will fire, but the flash won't be effective through the scope and the photo will be underexposed (dark). At least that's been my experience.
Secondly, and this only works if you have a self-timer on your camera and an adapter that secures the camera to the scope. If you do, you can set the timer to take the picture, and take your hands off the camera entirely. Since any motion will be multiplied by the scope's high magnification, even the act of depressing the shutter button yourself can cause things to be not as sharp as they will be if you can use a timer or remote shutter control.
Sometimes if it's really windy, and the wind is buffeting the scope, I attach my camera to the scope, set the timer, press the shutter, and then try to lean down on the tripod legs with my hands to try and steady it in the wind while waiting for the camera to take the photo.
I sometimes like the "circle" effect as well, but most digiscope experts recommend zooming your camera until the circle disappears.
I'm not an expert, by any means, but I've been practicing and am gradually learning what works and what doesn't. With my scope and my camera, I almost need perfect atmospheric conditions to get a good digiscope photo, meaning bright sunlight, a fairly dry day (no humidity in the air, which is a challenge in Kentucky), and a day that's not so hot that I get heat waves (also a challenge in summer in Kentucky). I just got back from a trip to New Mexico where those conditions were exactly right, and managed to get some nice closeups of Sandhill Cranes, which I'll eventually post once I get them all organized.
