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!

In the world of spotting scopes, you get exactly what you pay for in the sense that there is nothing you can add in the way accessories or features to a cheap spotting scope to turn into an expensive spotting scope. For example, you are stuck with whatever eyepiece is supplied on an cheap spotting scope. It's only on more expensive spotting scopes where you get the option of other spotting scope eyepieces. It's not at all the same as with telescopes, where you can add another eyepiece to upgrade performance of any telescope. This is just one of several important differences between a spotting scope and a telescope. For more, see my article, What is a Spotting Scope?

A customer asked me, the other day, if I ever have run out of things to see in the sky with my astronomy binocular, given that I now do most of my binocular astronomy under badly light-polluted skies. I suppose there is, indeed, some finite number of things I can see with my binocular, but I believe that is the wrong approach to any kind of astronomy or, for that matter, any pursuit of knowledge.

I am reminded of a day, many years, ago, when, as an undergad in Zoology, my professor told me the story of a student who was handed a single bone of unknown origin and was then given the assignment of writing down everything he could learn about the bone and hand in a report when finished. The student headed right to the library and spent the entire afternoon researching that bone. He returned the very next day, certain he had learned all that bone could teach him. The prof looked at his report, shook his head, handed back the report and told him to try, again. The student returned the next day after spending the entire night in the library, this time with even more information in his report. The professor read it quietly, but, once again, handed back the report, telling the student to try, yet again. Frustrated, the student got serious and spent and entire week in the library, researching that bone and bones, in general. By now, he was beginning to feel like a true expert on bones. Surely, the professor would be satisfied, this time. When the student proudly handed in his voluminous report after a week of hard work, the professor looked it over, nodded his approval and complimented him on his good work. The professor then asked the student if he had learned all there was to know about the bone. The student was about to reply, "Of course.", but then it dawned on him that the lesson had not been about the bone, at all. The student then replied, "I could spend the rest of my life studying this bone and never run out of things to discover." The prof smiled, accepted the report and handed him his next assignment.

I'm sure all impressionable and eager undergrads hear a version of this story if they are lucky enough to get the right professor, but it is a lesson I have taken to heart and it works for so much more than astronomy. May the day never come when I see all there is to see with an astronomy binocular.

As much as I love my Kowa 663 spotting scope, I still wish it were just a bit lighter when packing it on my bike and, it's just a shade too long for my Duluth Pack book bag, which I use on a daily basis for my bike commuting. On the other hand, I really don't want to drop down to a little 50mm spotting scope and take a hit on performance. What's a biking and birding gal to do? Ah, enter the Kowa 603. This Kowa spotting scope is as light as it gets in a 60mm spotting scope - I lose about 11 ounces in weight, but only about a half inch in length, but that's just enough to fit into my bike bag. Performance is excellent and, best of all, I still get to use my excllent Kowa 20-60x eyepiece. Is there a Kowa 603 in my future?

Birds for the week ending on Sunday, the 17th incuded some very colorful and spectacular beauties. For my spring '09 list, I added Scarlet Tanagers, Indigo Buntings, Eastern Bluebirds and American Redstarts - all the better to see in a premium binocular, such as my Leica 10x25BL. In fact, have seen more Indigos this spring than in the last five years combined. Truly a pleasant surprise. Also making my '09 spring list, though with a bit less color was a Gray-cheeked Thrush and a Golden-winged Warbler. Six more warblers to go to make it to my goal of 20 spring warblers and time is running out. Not that I am complaining. I am having my usual heavenly time whenever I am out in the field with the birds I love and I know some birders out on the prairie who are green with envy when I tell them about all the warblers in my neighborhood.

Was less successful with the spotting scope at the lake, however. Shore birds and waterfowl migration is well over, but I will be ready later this summer when the shorebirds, return.

My innate "clear sky alarm" (just a feeling I get) went off in my head about 2 AM, Saturday morning, so I stumbled over to the window and looked up in the sky. Sure enough, I could see stars! Since that has been a rare thing this spring, I grabbed my Nikon 10x70 Astroluxe binocular, put on my bathrobe and stepped out onto the patio. Not only was the sky clear, transparency was very good. The moon was just peaking over the eastern horizon, so went right to work before it robbed me of a dark sky. Lyra was directly overhead, and, with careful plotting, I manged to see M56, a tough globular for my light-polluted location, not to be confused with M57, Lyra's much more famous Messier object. Since Albireo was nearby, I also managed to split this famous double star by bracing the Nikon against the brick wall on the side of the apartment. Albireo is a good test for a 10x binocular and also a good example of how using two eyes improves visual acuity. Could not split the double when using only one eye through the astronomy binocular, but could positively see the star pair when I opened both eyes and, no, you won't get this benefit from using a binoviewer on a telescope, since a telescope with a binoviewer is still a single optical system, not a double optical system as with a binocular. As Phil Harrington from Astronomy magazine likes to say, "Two eyes are better than one".

I can honestly say that I have yet to meet a single person, yet, who has actually used all the features and programs found in a modestly priced digital point and shoot camera. To be sure, more and more menu options and "exciting" new features get added with each new model of digital camera and the growing size of the accompanying instruction manuals show it. Now, before you start saying that I am just an old timer griping about runaway technology, let me state that I don't actually mind all this unused potential, as long as I can quickly wade through it all and access the most basic and useful features on a digital camera. The computer chip is in there, anyway, so I suspect that the manufacturers just cram more stuff on it to be on the safe side and it certainly helps the economy by keeping the marketing folks and sales folks in a job. Wouldn't it be nice, though, if there some consistency from one brand to the next or even from one model to the next as far as software and menu operation? Okay, you can stop laughing, now.

Is the day coming when we equate a roll of 35mm camera film with scrolls of papyrus and velum? I suspect that I may have trouble explaining a film camera and a roll of film is to my grand kids. "Grandma, you're kidding, right? How can you can't get a picture onto that plastic stuff. Where does the battery go? Does it also play music?" Trust me, such a conversation could not have been envisioned back in the 80s. Indeed, in that decade, the word "megapixel" would have been associated with Tinkerbell or some other Walt Disney character. I shudder to think what a reference to RAW would have elicited. In other words, more than cameras have been digitalized; our entire culture has become digitalized. Now, would you like a thumbnail of that?

My old Apple G4 Powerbook finally died on me after ten years of very hard service and I just can't justify any more money to keep it going. So, I went shopping for a new Apple computer over the weekend and picked up the basic Macbook and love it. Really amazes me at how far technology has progressed since my first Apple laptop and how much more cost effective things are, now. For my new very basic Apple, I paid half of what it cost me in 1999 and I am getting a computer with many times more computing power. Is there an equivalent leap forward in technolgy in the world of optics? Not in the world of binoculars and spotting scopes, since these products don't employ a computer, but, definitely a yes in the world of digital cameras and other products that use an internal processor to function. Can't imagine where the computer world will be ten years from now.

Picked up some film for my newly acquired, old mechanical 35mm film camera, a Sears TLS and started my trip down memory lane. It was so nostalgic to be in a store buying print film, again. Almost forgot that feeling. Was even more of a trip to actually get out in the field and actually go through the old routine of frame, meter, focus and gently squeeze off a shot. Hey, I have nothing at all against digital cameras - I use them for most of my photography - but film ain't dead yet, not if this old gal has anything to say about it. Now, where do I get the film processed? Almost forgot what that chore is all about, too.

Bob, my fellow telescope expert and nut and yours truly helped an employee resurrect an old Meade DS-2114 reflector the employee purchased years ago from Costco. Bob, being the mechanical genius he is, fixed a malfunctioning drive motor and got the computer tweeked, then I helped both on the use of a Cheshire tool for collimation. Amazes me how many beginners allow fear of collimation scare them away from choosing a reflector when it comes to buying a telescope. Collimation is not the great mystery many believe and you do not have to be a machnical genius to collimate a Newtonian reflector. If an all thumbs old gal like me can collimate a reflecting telescope, anyone can. Anyway, this story has a happy ending, with an old telescope back up and running, probably better than ever.

I was thinking of getting a compact binocular as a gift for my daughter who is graduating with a Masters in Art, as I believe that everyone should own a binocular. The more I think about it, though, the more I might go with a high grade monocular, instead. The Nikon 5x15 HG has been my constant companion in my purse for several years. The little Nikon is about the size of my thumb, so I never know it's there until I need it. I can't even list all the uses I have found for this spectacular monocular and the optics continue to blow me, away. For an artist, the super close focus of 18" on the Nikon HG could be used for inspection of photos or canvas and if that isn't close enough, you can always turn the Nikon 5x15HG upside down and use it as a magnifier.

My youngest daughter recently moved from our small town in Nebraska to a suburb of Kansas City. I was more than a little worried about her driving in an unknown area as well as navigating in the big city, as she had never driven in a big city. She is a small town girl. We borrowed a Garmin Nuvi 200, the basic Nuvi GPS in the Garmin GPS system and we are both happy to report that this personal Garmin GPS worked like a charm. She arrived at her destination without a hitch and has also made several trips into the heart of Kansas City without getting lost, once. I will soon buy her the newest version in the Garmin Nuvi 255, so she can return the Garmin Nuvi 200 to our neighbor. What the heck! I will probably get one for myself, someday, when I buy a car, again. Thank-you, Garmin. Moms, everywhere, should thank you.