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OpticsBlog – Thoughts and reviews of binoculars, telescopes, scopes, sights, and much more - birdwatching, astronomy, target shooting - pretty much anything related to optics, nature, and life!Monday, June 30, 2008Choosing a telescope help
Choosing a telescope can be a daunting ordeal for a beginner. First, there are so many optical types of telescopes. Next you add different types of mounts. Computerized or manual? Where does a beginner start? That's why I wrote articles on this topic for our website. All are written with the beginner in mind. First stop, How to choose the right telescope, then on to Telescope FAQs for a review on how to use a beginner telescope. Also must reading is the A Dozen Telescope Observing Tips For Beginners. Where you observe can great influence your choice of telescope
Thursday, June 26, 2008Spotting scope and shorebird season
In the birding world, shorebird fans like me know that migration for shorebirds is not like other groups. Shorebirds actually begin appearing in serious numbers as early as July and really get going in August. The trick is to find a marsh with the right water conditions, or, should I say, mud conditions. Mud flats are where you find most shore birds. I've been scouting my local marshes, but so far, all are filled to the brim with water, meaning no mud. Really no need to drag the spotting scope along until I find a good spot, but I suspect I will start carrying a spotting scope as much out of tradition, as anything. Really wouldn't be a summer for me without a spotting scope and shore birds. I will be out there, shorebirds or not.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008DEET on your binocular
Been a perfect breeding season for mosquitoes, so just a reminder to all those folks out there using repellents. Formulas containing DEET can ruin the finish on a binocular, spotting scope, camera or any valuable optic and even make some armored surfaces tacky. DEET, in fact, can make a good paint remover if used in concentrated form. No denying the effectiveness of DEET, but when using binoculars and spotting scopes, I am always careful to use non-DEET repellents. I am currently using a lemon Eucalyptus formula that is moderately effective and harmless to finishes. Most such plant based repellents I have tried seem compatible for use with optics.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008Bats in my telescope
Moving past full moon, now, so time for summer observing with the astronomy binocular or telescope. I do love summer astronomy, but it tends to keep me up late, especially since the lights of a nearby tennis court don't go off till 10:00 PM. Just another headache we urban astronomers have to endure, I guess. Still, it is fun watching the bats dip into the light beams over the tennis court to catch insects. Not as much fun as seeing my beloved open star clusters in a binocular or telescope, but the bats are not complaining.
Monday, June 23, 2008Love that monocular
If I had to rate an optic as the most useful, based on how often I carry it, I would have to nominate my monocular. No, my Nikon 5x15HG will not do the job of a binocular, even a compact, but, like any monocular, it is small enough to always be there for me. Have used it for some impromptu birding, wildlife watching, navigating in the city to read street signs and spot stores of interest in large shopping complexes. I have even turned it upside down and used it as a magnifier to study rocks and insects. All this in something the size of my thumb. Where is your monocular?
Thursday, June 19, 2008Go light spotting scopes
Seems that spotting scopes are getting heavier as I get older. There was a day when I lugged the big 80mm spotting scopes over my shoulder, sometimes all day and now I have a dent in my shoulder to prove it. That's why I dropped down to 60mm and 65mm spotting scopes, a few years ago. Going lighter on the scope has also allowed me to go lighter on a tripod. Net result is that I carry a spotting scope more than ever, now, and can even pack spotting scope and tripod on my bicycle. Better to go light than not go at all.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008Spotting scope class
Will be conducting a class on spotting scopes for our employees, this week - one of my favorite job duties. How can such relatively simple optical instrument like a spotting scope generate so many product questions, not to mention so many unrealistic expectations? I get customers, daily, who expect to identify a person's face at a distance of 5 miles or expect to point a spotting scope skyward and see detail on the space station. Spotting scopes are wondrous optical instruments, but they cannot work miracles. While frustrating, this sort of thing also insures my job security.
Monday, June 16, 2008Summer traingle for Meade Mysky
Summer is a great time to test drive a sky computer, such as the Meade Mysky Personal Sky Exploration Guide . That summer triangle of bright stars, Deneb, Altair and Vega, is directly overhead, easy for you to see and easy targets for a sky computer. Planets are a bit tougher and you will need to stay up late to catch Jupiter, low in the southeast. Your My sky will show you which one. After you've identified any of these targets with your MySky, get the telescope out for a closer look in the neighborhood for star clusters, double stars and other deep-sky objects. Summer nights are made for observing and telescopes.
Binocular, camera, monocular - choices, choices
Commuting and traveling on a bike has some rewards that few motorists get to enjoy. This morning, as I pedaled through the Forest Preserve, I was treated to the sight of a doe and a fawn. The doe stepped, nervously, across the trail, a bare ten yards from me, followed shortly by a spindly legged fawn. The doe made it know that she would brook no nonsense from me and, being a good mother, backtracked and helped the fawn cross the trial, all the while keeping one eye on me. Oh, where was my camera? It's getting to the point where I can't decide what equipment to carry when biking - binocular, digital camera, monocular, even spotting scope? My bike jersey only has so many pockets.
Thursday, June 12, 2008Binocular and telescope locations
Had a birthday last week and I am now old enough (late 50s) to be thinking ahead to retirement. It's going to be a matter of finding a location that offers dark skies for my astronomy binoculars and telescopes, access to a great marsh, specifically, and a lot of different habitats, in general, for my birding and, last, but not least, a large network of bicycle trails and routes. Also, no heavy traffic or congestion. Cold and snow are okay, though - I enjoy winter and love to bicycle in the snow. Now taking applications for any area that needs a crazy woman birder, star loving, biker chic.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008Mud for spotting scopes
Dodged storms all weekend on the bicycle, so not as many miles or as much birding as usual. That's just the our Chicago area climate doing its early summer thing, so I take it in stride. I am hoping, though, that things dry out a little, later this summer, so we get some exposed mud flats to attract some shorebirds. Haven't had the right conditions in a couple of years, now, to see a lot of these spotting scope class birds, so me and my spotting scope are getting anxious. My idea of a great birding day is a mudflat filled with shorebirds, a spotting scope and a comfortable chair (I am getting older).
Tuesday, June 10, 2008Gas prices and the great outdoors.
Even though I don't own a car and ride a bicycle as my sole means of support, these days, I really feel the pain of so many folks who are getting hit and hit hard by rising gas prices, especially all my friends out there in the rural, wide open spaces of the west. I used to live there and I know how people depend on vehicles, not only when it comes to shopping for essentials, but also to enjoy outdoor activities such as birding, camping, fishing, hunting, boating, backpacking, hiking and so on. I can remember days when it was nothing to log a couple hundred miles just to check prime birding spots or to reach a good lake for fishing. It's now at the point where some of my small town friends must now choose between a long commute to a job and food on the table. It's not like there are a lot of job or transportation options in a small town. Definitely not a good situation for rural America. This small town girl here in the big city understands.
Monday, June 09, 2008Protection for cameras
Summer arrived, here in the Chicago area, almost overnight. Went from unusually cool to typically summer hot with not much in between. That's fine with me, since I enjoy all seasons on my bicycle. Since I use a bicycle for all my transportation (I don't own a car), I quickly acclimate to the weather, no matter how extreme. I worry more about the optical equipment I carry and its ability to endure all these changes in temperature and weather. So far, no real issues with any binocular, monocular or camera I have been carrying, though I am extra careful in wet and very cold weather to carry my equipment in sealed plastic bags as needed. Cameras, especially, need protection. The mositure that condenses, instantly, on the camera body going from cold outdoors to warm indoors can work its way inside and cause problems. I keep mine in a sealed bag until the camera returns to room temp. Works, well, on binoculars, too.
Thursday, June 05, 2008Jupiter telescope
Jupiter is now within reach of those who are willing to stay up past midnight. Saw it low in the southeast, the other night, in my astronomy binoculars, though it was not especially sharp or bright in the haze over the horizon. I suspect it would still be worth setting up a telescope to see and should become a better telescope object as the summer progresses. Even fairly low magnifications will show some cloud belts, making Jupiter a great object for even a beginner telescope.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008Compact binoculars for birding
You sometimes see experienced birders like me out in the field with compact binoculars. Can a compact binocular be a serious birding binocular? The answer depends on you and your experience level. The answer is a definite yes for old-timers like me who often have the bird identified or narrowed down to a couple of possibilities before they see it in the binocular. Compact binoculars are a delight to carry and, anymore, are all I really need. On the other hand, compact binoculars are harder to use than larger binoculars. The smaller exit pupils of a compact binocular make lining up the binocular with the eyes more critical and compact binoculars do not have as much image brightness or resolution. That's why I like to start my beginning birders with mid-size binoculars or full size binoculars. Those first steps at bird identification are hard enough without fighting the binocular.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008Deep forest binocular
Good weekend for birding. Weather was the ultimate for birding and biking. Found a little used Forest Preserve trail that was paved, once, but still navigable on my road bike. Best of all, it took me, the bike and my binocular into the heart of the forest. While, there, I was treated to the song of a Black-billed Cuckoo - an uncommon musical treat in our area and, a bit later, topped it off by actually seeing the bird in my Swarovski 8x20 Pocket binocular. This bird is always a challenge to see in such heavy foliage. Guess you might say I got a double cuckoo on this one.
Monday, June 02, 2008Star maps for your telescope
For those of you beginning astronomers brave enough to try navigating through the stars the old fashioned way (my way) - by a star map - here's a helpful hint. Try to match the magnitude of the star map as close as you can to the magnitude you see through your finder scope, if using a telescope, or your binocular, if doing astronomy with a binocular. Yes, I suspect there is a way to calculate this beforehand, but it's going to be mostly a matter of trial and error, since the magnitude of your observing site is going to be the x factor. From my very light polluted site with my 10x70 binocular, for instance, a magnitude 7.5 star map is a pretty good match with what I see in the binocular.
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