[ATMoB-discuss] 2 Questions

[Herzberg, Steven (OCD)]

I have 2 totally unrelated questions:
 
1.  Does anyone know of a simple beginners guide to digital astro image
processing?  I try to follow some of the discussions here and am totally
lost after the first couple of words.  I am using - yes, here comes the
dinosaur - film which I have digitized when it is processed at the photo
lab, so I'm not sure what, in this context, a dark frame or any other
benchmark frame, is or how it could be made or even if it is necessary.
Nor have I any idea why and when one would use certain techniques, such
as deconvolution or unsharp masking - it's all Greek to me (with
apologies to Homer).  I've tried to run a couple of Jupiter photos thru
an unsharp mask and end up with a slightly better Jupiter and a much
more speckled background sky.  As an added treat I do not have
Photoshop, but have GIMP instead.  I also have Registax and downloaded
an astro imaging program from Iris, but have not really figured out how
to use any of them.  So if anyone knows of an "Image processing for
Dummies" book, or some good tutorials, I would appreciate it.
 
2.  I'm looking for a small finder scope to fit the small finder-scope
rings that came with an optical tube I am finally getting mounted and
running.  The rings will hold something in the 30-35mm diameter range.
If anyone has one they can sell cheap - or donate - please let me know.
Thanks.