Been lusting after a Televue 85 for some time, now, but can't say my bank account agrees. To keep the internal peace, I have been considering a less expensive, though still quality, option in the Vixen ED81SWT. This Japanese telescope may not measure up to overall quality of a Televue, but it's no slouch and has recieved some excellent reviews. The money I save would allow me to add a Vixen Porta mount, plus an eyepiece or two. Be the perfect grab and go scope and would look nice in either my living room or my patio. Tough choice, but it is nice to have a choice when it comes to quality APO refractors. Where's that rebate?

Hey, all you television addicts! Did you know that you can sit and relax and enjoy an even better show by heading outdoors with a spotting scope and a portable chair? One of my favorite things to do is to sit behind a spotting scope at a local marsh and watch all the shore birds, waterfowl, wading birds and other bird groups, not to mention all the other types of wildlife. Best of all, no commercials and lots of sunshine and fresh air, plus, you never know how the show will end. Turn off the TV, grab a spotting scope and a tripod and head to the nearest marsh.

Low light plus a moving subject means a headache for a photographer and the only cure is a large (fast) camera lens to speed up shutter time and have any possibility of avoiding a blurred image. That's why folks who ask me to recommend a small digital point and shoot camera or, worse, a digital camera binocular, to get shots at a concert are disappointed when I send them right to the most expensive option - an SLR camera and a large aperture lens. Sorry, the small lens and anemic flash on a small digital point and shoot camera are not up to the task and no digital binocular even offers flash. Of course, if you can get the entertainer to stop dead still and get right up close with a good accessory light, so you can get a nice pic, it might be another story. Wouldn't count on it, though.

One of the new developments in digital SLR cameras is the Live View function on the LCD screen. This is a big plus for those who want to use an SLR camera for digiscoping. On DSLRs without a Live View LCD screen, you have to step and look through the viewfinder to frame and focus, just like the old days when we used film SLR cameras on spotting scopes - definitely not comfortable and not fast. It's one of the reasons digiscoping with small digital point and shoots has always been more popular as a camera for digiscoping. Now with Liveview, as found on the Canon 40D, Xts and Pentax 20D, you get the convenience of using the LCD screen for framing and focusing, just like on a digital point and shoot. Ain't technology grand?

Walked the bike along a Forest Preserve trail on the commute home, last night, to do some birding. Can't say I saw any new warblers, but it was certainly a colorful session of birding. In my compact binocular, indeed, any birding binocular, a Scarlet Tanager and a Baltimore Oriole make a spectacular sight. Males of both species are a delight to behold and, as a special bonus, the Oriole sang as it perched a mere twenty or so yards, away. Again, where is the spotting scope and digital camera when I need them? Oh, well, only so much gear a girl can pack on a bike as she commutes to and from work.

Windy and rainy over much of the weekend, but some warblers were moving. Can't remember the last time I saw so many Palm Warblers. Got to the point where I didn't bother raising the Zeiss 8x20 compact binocular, despite its light weight, anytime I saw a warbler twitching its tail. Of course, I also picked up many Yellow-rumped and Tennessee warblers with the little Zeiss compact and also a couple of Yellowthroats and a fair number of Yellow warblers as well. In the spotting scope, I had a great view of a Ruddy duck male in full breeding plumage, but no digital camera, so no pic. Ouch. The birds are moving, though.

For those of you putting long hours with an astronomy binocular or telescope, you might want to do your back and neck a favor afterwards with a session on a HumanTouch massage chair. Be nice to set a Human Touch out on the lawn while you observe, but problem is you'd find yourself falling a sleep instead of observing. We have a Human Touch massage chair, here at OpticsPlanet, and our employees fall asleep in it all the time it's so comfortable.

It sometimes surprise me how many people think they need a large and expensive telescope just to see planets, even Jupiter and Saturn. Fact is, if you are familiar with the sky, you can spot these planets with nothing more than a binocular, though a typical binocular will not have enough magnification to show Saturn's rings. Still, any telescope, even the smallest telescope, will show you the rings of Saturn. I first saw the rings in my old 60mm refractor. Of course, if you want to see Saturn and Jupiter in fine detail, you will need to get into a serious telescope. Point is, no matter what you own, you should get out there and use it.

The wide-open spaces that others shun as being too desolate, intimidating and barren are near to my heart for many reasons. One of these is the horizon to horizon view you get when doing astronomy. When using a telescope or a binocular on the southern constellations, you pick up objects that you seldom see when surrounded by a landscape with trees. Another benefit that goes hand-in-hand with wide-open spaces is a dark sky. Want to turn your little telescope into a big telescope? Travel to a dark sky site. Going west on vacation? Be sure to take a small telescope or, at least, a binocular and do some astronomy.

Wish someone would invent a clear sky alarm that would wake me at night to let me know a clear sky has suddenly developed. It's so rare to get a clear sky around here that it seems a shame to miss any opportunity to do some astronomy. That's why I keep an astronomy binocular and/or a small telescope ready to go at a moment's notice, but I still need a clear sky to use them. Maybe I should stay up at night and start a clear sky astronomy service. I could give call to some of our local astronomers when there is a clear sky. There are a lot of telescopes and astronomy binoculars in the Chicago area and astronomers anxious to use them.