A Christmas Gift

My eyes have never been very good, I've had to use trifocals for many years. This also means that I have accumulated many magnifying glasses, and many types, for looking at my stamps. This Christmas my wife took pity on me and got me a digital microscope. It connects to my computer via the USB port and has a 10x - 40x and a 150x magnifications. It has 6 white LED for illumination, comes with a stand, takes snapshots or movies and software is included on its own CD.

Works great! I recently purchased a US C4 and didn't notice until I looked at it that the stamp has 2 small mold spots (I think they are mold spots). After seeing the stamp on my computer monitor the spots really stand out and I should have noticed them before. The only negative thing about the device is that I can't get the whole stamp one image. I didn't want it for that so that's not something I'm really concerned with.

The device is from Celestron, model 44302-A and cost about $40.00 - $50.00 depending on where she bought it. www.celestron.com if anyone is interested. I'm sure there are better devices out there but this suites me just fine, for now. Sorry I can't send an image as I have taken my scanner/printer to apartment in Florida.

Art

Art- YOU DA MAN!

I've been looking at the USB Microscopes on ebay, and from the philatelic supply houses, and I never thought to look at Celestron or Meade--

I've owned a Celestron telescope, and have some Celestron binoculars, and I can tell you and everyone else, that if you get worried by any of the reviews, that this product is from a great company with a great name, and I'm going to order one today--

One point-- Best not to order from the original site that Art listed in his post. Best to Google "Celestron 44302-A", and you'll find this product from $38.95 and up.

Compared with the products from the philatelic supply houses, the price is unbelievable and very affordable--

Now, if I could just find an electric watermark detector from these guys

Thanks again Art, for the heads up-- it will be very helpful with the Dr. Carroll Chase book, trying to learn how to plate those 10's and 11's!!

Ray

Ray,
Im looking at plating my many 7s, 9s and 24s.

Art

Art: you seem to have got yours working but Wert and Rileysan seem to be having problems with the software (see their Christmas thread)? For those of us that are tempted to get one is there a secret?

No secret. To be honest, its one of the few times I actually followed the directions! The only thing that seemed to be weird was that it specifically stated to disconnect the device before loading the software. Other than that it was pretty straight forward.

Art