I love compact binoculars, even though conventional wisdom says they are not supposed to perform like their larger cousins. On paper this is true, I suppose, but in actual use, it isn't quite that black and white.

When people quote me the usual tired cliches about exit pupil, objective size and so on I just hand them one of my compacts. One look and the cliches melt away like snow in July. Of course, I hand them premium grade compacts, not the little plastic junkers that proliferate the budget bino market.

My favorite compact is the Leica Ultravid 10x25 followed very closely by the Nikon 10x25 Premier LX. Both are razor sharp - sharper than even a good 10x42 and not too far behind the finest 10x42. As for image brightness, they will hold their own with the big stuff until it is dark enough for cars to turn on their lights. In the meantime, I tend to forget I am wearing one of my compacts around my neck, even after hours of use. Can't say that about any 10x42

We had a very informative and exciting meeting with ATN, one of the world leaders in the sale of night vision products. In the future, OpticsPlanet will be working even more closely with this giant to bring more of their products to our customers. I am very impressed with the move by ATN to stamp each and every one of their night vision products with accurate information as to the generation and tube quality where applicable. In a market known at times for somewhat questionable labeling practices, this is a refreshing move towards integrity.

These are busy days here at OpticPlanet.net. Sometime in the next month or so we will be moving into our new, much larger faciltiy in Northbrook, Il. This new facility will allow us to expand and improve our service and our inventory. Right now, we nearly have to look over boxes to see each other and getting from one office to another is akin to running an obstacle course. About the only thing I will miss is my window and my birds that frequent the airport across the expressway. I hope Clancy, the Red-tailed hawk makes it up to Northbrook once in awhile to say hello.

Spring is here, or almost, anyway, so it's time to dust off the spotting scope and get out to watch the early spring migration of waterfowl. Having done this for over thirty years (not going to say how much over thirty years), here's a tip for beginners on using a spotting scope all day.

To reduce eye fatigue and strain, keep both eyes open! This is easier said than done when looking through a scope, but with practice, it becomes second nature. Squinting one eye closed produces strain on the closed eye but not the open eye and leaves you with that cross eyed feeling and blurry vision. Keeping both eyes open is easier with eyepieces with large lenses and long eye relief, but it can be done with any eyepiece. If you can't manage the both eyes open trick, place your hand over the eye not being used, but do not squint it shut!

It also helps to use your master eye when you look through the scope. Most people do this naturally, but don't assume it is your right eye if you are right handed or left eye if you are left-handed. Some people (yours truly) are cross eye dominant. People keep telling me I'm a little weird. May be they are right.

When it was anounced here at OpticsPlanet that we would be carrying a line of flashlights, I have to admit I was underwhelmed. How could you get excited about flashlights?

Little did I know how popular our line of Streamlight products would be with police departments, the military and security organizations. The Streamlight products I have found most interesting are the Streamlight M3 and the Streamlight M6. Both slide onto a standard picatinny (1913 military) rail or a Glock style handgun rail. The M3 is just a flashlight, but the M6 is a combination of flashlight and laser sight. They are streamlined, compact, lightweight and rugged. No wonder they are so popular as a tactical accessory.

The gap in image quality between an inexpensive binocular and an excellent binocular is there to see, even to an untrained eye, but compared to the quality gap between a cheap spotting scope and an expensive spotting scope … well, let's just say we are talking the Grand Canyon, now. To put it simply, the optical challenge escalates quickly as magnification goes up. It's a whole different game at 60x than it is at 8x.

Most spotting scopes produce reasonable image quality at low magnifications, even some of the least expensive. Turn the zoom ring up, though. and you learn very quickly how good a spotting scope you have. Cheap scopes rarely make it to 30x before the image deteriorates. A good scope will hang in there to 40x or a bit more before image quality starts to drop off. A good buy here is the Eagle Optics Raven or the Swift Nighthawk. If you want a scope as sharp at 60x as it is at 20x, though, you are looking at a select handful (and very expensive) spotting scopes. Now we're talking the big 5 - Swarovski HD, Leica APO, Nikon Fieldscope 82ED, Kowa 82mm fluorite and Zeiss. More on these later.

Now is the best time ever to buy the Meade ETX-90 PE with UHTC coatings. We can't advertise any special price, but we'll make it easier for anyone thinking about an ETX-90 to upgrade to the best version currently offered.

Why upgrade to the ETX-90 PE? The ETX-90 PE makes telescope alignment quicker and easier. With the ETX-90 PE, there is no need to point your scope north, no need to level the telescope, no need to set the time as with the AT. Your ETX-90 PE does all this for you.

In addition, the ETX-90 PE uses a sophisticated red dot finder scope (Smartfinder) which is much easier to use than the standard 8x21 finder scope on the older AT version.

Lastly, the ETX-90 PE comes with a PC interface cable (not included on the ETX-90 AT). This cable allows you to download the latest software upgrades available from the Meade website. Your PE Autostar computer will always be current.