I finally whined enough and got a tele-converter lens for my camera!

Fortunately I read enough reviews on the Canon TC-DC58B 1.5x converter lens (think zoom lens) not to get my hopes up too high. I knew it would be little more than a "bump" for my camera's 12x zoom capability. That's okay with me! The investment wasn't outrageous at about $95 with s/h.

Below: It's my first somewhat clear shot of the Pleiades. Keep in mind, it's only the brightest stars I can see through my viewfinder or on the camera's screen. The Pleiades are not especially bright so I have to point and hope. And point and hope and check and re-point and check and focus and repoint and so on and so forth.

At full focus, the stars were blurry, but if I drew back with the zoom the stars came into focus. If you look closely you'll see that it's a circle of stars surrounded by black. This is because that when the tele-converter isn't at full zoom, you end up shooting the inside of the barrel of the lens. This might be kind of cool for some things--with a little creative editing that is.

The Pleiades are the small cluster of stars in the lower right portion of the shot. I swear it's there, just click the image. You'll see.

Remaining on my S3 wish list is the WC-DC58A which is a wide-angle conversion lens; a macro lens; and a fish-eye lens. And some dang lens caps to fit everything plus an extra adapter or two to save time. And an assistant to carry all this junk for me and keep my lenses clean while I'm out shooting. Yeah, I need a caddy. And a very nice camera bag. Thankfully, I have a photojournalist vest. I'll be putting that to more and more serious use (I hope).