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!

Had a recent visit from our Meade friend and VP of Sales, Greg Bragg, and he is going to get one of those new Meade ETX-LS telescope coming our way, so Bob and I can actually put an ETX-LS telescope through its paces and post a hands-on ETX-LS review. That ssumes, of course, that we will get at least one clear nigth before the end of summer. Ha! Really looking forward, though, to see if the ETX-LS lives up to its billing as far as its automatic, do-everything computer alignment. Personally, I am more interested in the new 6" optical tube, since that has always been a favorite size of mine, but I know it is the computer that will make the ETX-LS a success or not. Greg also assures me that Meade has been busy upgrading all parts of their operation in response to requests from customers, so we'll see. The world of amateur astronomy needs that old Meade telescope versus Celestron telescope rivalry and I have no doubt that Celestron is planning a counterattack as we speak. Long may both companies be with us.

It may be July hot, but I have seen a lot of widlife this last week, early in the morning, just as it is getting light. Does with fawns have been my favorite, but have also seen plenty of raccoons and one coyote leaving the suburbs to take shelter for the day in the Forest Preserve. I wonder how many people know what is in their backyard every night. Might be fun to check out a night vsion moncocular, either an inexpensive gen 1, like the Night Owl NexGen LightWeight 2X or, even better, a digital, such as the Bushnell Stealthview and take a night ride on the bike. As kids, we used to do the same thing with flashlights, but that was way back before there was such a thing as night vision technology. Even a basic Gen 1 NV monocular can add a lot of fun to a camping trip or walk through the neighborhood park at night, assuming, of course, that it is safe and legal to do so in your area.

I am having a lot of fun with my old Sears TLS film SLR I bought from a friend for a song. Going back to an all manual, do everything for yourself film camera with absolutely no automation has been a refreshing break from the menu saturated, automatic, computer controlled everything digital cameras I have been using. It's put the fun and romance back into photography for me. The only negative, so far, is discovering how hard it is for these old eyes to focus on the viewing screen of a manual focus film SLR - I am definitely getting older. The solution? My dream or, perhaps I should say, fantasy, is to pick up a Leica MP camera, since the viewfinder in a rangefinder camera is brighter and easier to focus. Of course, a Leica M camera, in any model, is not a wildlife camera, but I have been more interested, of late, in a scenery camera or street camera and don't really need the long telephotos. Did I mention that Leica M lenses are basically as expensive as the already horrendously expensive Leica M8.2 camera or Leica MP camera body? Okay, maybe I should split this into two fantasies, one for the Leica camera body and one for the Leica lens or lenses. Okay, three fantasies, since each Leica lens is expensive enough for its own fantasy.

I am one who does her best to stay on the sunny side of the street, but with our area about to set a record for June rainfall, that's not easy. My birding has not suffered, at all, but my astronomy has taken a big hit. My telescope and astronomy binocular have not seen any real use for over a month and that hurts. Ouch! I would love to convince my boss to move OpticsPlanet to the desert in Arizona where I could use my telescope and binocular on a regular basis, but I suspect that suggestion will not get far. Too bad, since Arizona would also be an excellent place to add some birds to my life list. In the meantime, I will continue to dream and drool by pulling up the Astronomy Picture of the Day from the NASA website. It will keep your spirits up, even if you are not an astronomer.

I know how eager a beginners can be when buying their first telescope, but I always advise caution when they also want to start, right away, with astrophotography. Astrophotograpy requires a thorough knowledge of atronomy and telescope use and a solid background in the basics of photography. This is much more involved than taking pics of the family at a picnic. The question a beginner should ask when buying a first telescope is if the model selected is appropriate for astrophotgraphy, should they choose to do astrophotography after they have learned how to use their first telescope. Some telescopes are not equipped to do some astrophotography and some telescopes are equipped only to do limited astrophotography. The same can be said of cameras. Not all cameras are suitable for serious astrophotography.

When we left the moon back in 70s, we confidently wrote it off as a cold and incredibly dry place and many believed there as not much more to know about our satellite. Hard to believe that four decades, later, we are sending a probe to not only scout for a possible moon base, but also to see if there is water in the bottom of some of the moon craters at the pole. Yes, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will be launched, later this week and should it succeed in locating ice at the bottom of a crater, that will, in my opinion, be one of the greatest shots in the arm for our space program since we left the moon four decades, ago. Ice will make a moon base for more likely and possible, not to mention change our views about space exploration in general. Of course, back in those days, we didn't suspect Jupiter's moon Europa to possibly have an entire ocean of water below an icy crust or that the even more distant Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, would have landforms similar to Earth's. Rings around Uranus and Neptune? Yeah, right. Pluto no longer a planet? That's crazy! Yes, we've learned a lot over these decades.

I started my amateur astronomy in a serious way about the time we retired our Apollo program. As I look back on amateur astronomy over these last four decades, I am also amazed at how much it has changed. A computer? On a telescope? Not in the 70s. No one even owned a personal computer in those days and the thought of adding a computer to a telescope was science fiction, even for many professional observatories. How about a 10" telescope? Pretty average size telescope, these days, but a 10" telescope was a monster for most amateur astronomers in the early 70s. In fact, a lot of us thought a 3" refractor was a big deal. APO refractors like a Televue? No such thing. Of course, we didn't have as much light pollution, either and, in fact, that term had yet to come in vogue. Schmidt-Cassegrains? Maksutovs? Not readily available and very expensive. Meade telescopes and Celestron telescopes had only just begun to become standard equipment on the amateur astronomy landscape.

What will the future bring in the way of our Space Program and amateur telescopes? No way will I hazard a guess, but I hope I am around to see it.

New moon, next week, so I will be keeping my fingers crossed for a clear sky, though the immediate forecast is less than encouraging. This has been the poorest year for astronomy, yet, since I moved here to the Chicago area some five years, ago. Ouch. Should the sky cooperate, I will have my astronomy binocular on a tripod with the goal of doing some binocular double stars. Double stars are the one and only place I like to use a tripod with my Nikon 10x70 astronomy binocular. That extra support really makes a difference on very close doubles. I rarely, though, use a tripod with other objects when observing with 10x. That's the joy of keeping the magnification low. Crank up the magnification even a little over 10x and I always use a tripod with an astronomy binocular.

We're moving into the last quarter for the moon and that is a good time to check it out with a binocular or a telescope. After all these years of observing the moon with binoculars and telescopes, I am still fascinated with the way the changing light alters what you see on the moon, night to night. The same crater can look amazingly different one night to next and some of the features can appear downright eerie - after all, this is another world and a world, quite different than earth. I often wonder, as I stare through a telescope or a binocular at the lunar landscape, what it might actually be lik to stand on the surafce of the moon and take in the aline vistas before me. I suspect the day will come when this is common enough, but I doubt I wll see that day. For now, the club of actual moon walkers remains quite small, but I can go to the moon anytime I want with a telescope.

This winter I proved to myself that it was quite possible to mix birding with cross-country skiing, at least when using a birding binocular. (Next winter I may be crazy enough to add a spotting scope to my ski package. ) So, as thoughts begin to turn to retirement, I have began some very preliminary research to find a place that offers both plenty of snow with the right terrain (gently sloping or a bit hilly) and still provide a good diversity of birds. To someone not familiar with birding, the number of bird species drops off , in a very general way, as you head north, but snowfall, obviously drops off as we head south. What's this cross-country skier and birder to do? It will be a compromise, to be sure, no matter what state I pick. Here's a maybe. I like the location of Marquette, Michigan, which measures its annual snow fall in feet, rather than inches and, remarkably for being so far north, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan has quite varied bird life, not to mention some great species of the far north I have yet to see, due to the fact that it is right on the edge of some northern and southern habitats, as well as on the border between east and west. Okay, UPERS, here comes Joanie

For many years, an 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope on a fork mount, such as the Celestron CPC800 and the Meade LX90, has been the standard size and type of telescope for the serious amateur astronomer and for good reason. This is nearly the universal telescope that will do just about any job required and do it well. Times have changed, though; the pace of life in this decade is more hurried and more mobile. Slightly smaller and thus more portable telescopes have begun to come on strong. Sales are up for the 5" and 6" Schmidt-Cassegrains such as the Celestron Nexstar 5SE and the Nexstar 6SE and the soon to be delivered and very much awaited Meade ETX-LS. The new Meade ETX-LS should make quite a splash in this market, not only because of its portability, but also because of its automation. A telescope that can align its computer all by itself should appeal to the on-the-go astronomer like no other.

Had a nice chat with an elderly birder who had ordered an 80mm birding spotting scope, but, because of arthritis, was having trouble holding the spotting scope even long enough to thread it on to the tripod. No way, though, was she going to give up birding. That's my kind of gal and I hope I manage as well when the years finally catch up with me. Our solution was a dandy. We went with the lightest 60mm scope on the market in a Kowa 602, added the Kowa 20-60 zoom eyepiece and finished with the Kowa spotting scope case. That's a great birding spotting scope combo for those who need to consider weight and size, but who don't want to sacrifice quality or performance.

There is so much more to astronomy than merely seeing and detecting objects with your telescope or your binocular. True, this technical and scientific side of amateur astronomy is a big part of the equation, but as a very intuitive and feeling person, I can attest that there is also a huge aesthetic component to our pursuit. Astronomy is not just for techno geeks; it is a worthy pursuit for anyone who has even a spark of curiosity or an ounce of perception. I believe astronomy goes even beyond the rich tradition and history we have inherited; I suspect it is imbeded deep in our DNA. We are all astronomers in our heart.

For me, there is something so very lovely about sitting under a dark sky and discovering that a very familiar backyard is a place quite different at night. Astronomy is a special time for me; it is a sensual treat, sitting in the dark, totally immersed in my surroundings, with the expanse of stars overhead. Then, when I turn to my telescope or my astronomy binocular to the sky, my imagination explodes. I am a wanderer by nature and what more could a wander want than to see into the limitless depths of the universe? At these times, I understand and believe, in both a literal and figurative sense, that we truly are connected to the cosmos.

The long awaited Meade ETX-LS is on the way. Meade reports that the first delivery of this fully automated computerized telescope has begun. What makes the Meade ETX-LS so special? The feature most hyped, and rightfully so, is the self-aligning computer system. If this new Meade telescope works as planned, no more three star alignment and fussy fine tuning to get the telescope and the computer looking at the same point in the sky. Just power up and let the ETX-LS do all the work until it signals you that it is ready to be used.

Since I am not a computer user when it comes to telescopes, the feature I find most interesting on this new Meade ETX telescope is the new 6" optical system, either in an SC or the better corrected 6" ACF. This is a great size for today's on the go astronomer as Celestron recently discovered when they offered their 6" SCT. As a gal, I just find that an 8" SCT is just a bit much. A 6" Schmidt-Cassegrain like the ETX-LS is just about perfect for me to move out into the yard on a moment's notice.

This new ETX-LS heats up that decades old rivalry between Meade and Celestron. This is just like old times and it I'm glad to see it. It's been a tradition for Meade and Celestron to play leap frog with new telescopes and new telescope ideas. This rivalry has been healthy for both companies and we, the amateur astronomy community, are always the winners.

"The eyepiece is half the telescope, the eyepiece is half the spotting scope." This is what I keep telling my students in my product classes and it is something I can show them easily enough. The difference an eyepiece makes in a spotting scope, especially, is dramatic and all revealing. Nothing quite as frustrating and miserable to use than a cheap spotting scope with a cheap zoom eyepiece. On the other hand, nothing quite as spectacular when it comes to viewing as a good spotting scope with a state-of-the-art zoom eyepiece. Of course, that great zoom eyepiece comes at a spectacularly high price - a premium zoom eyepiece can cost as much as an average, complete spotting - but when you consider all the quality lenses involved, it makes sense. It's really no different than a cheap zoom lens on a camera versus a premium zoom lens on a camera. If you want the best spotting scope performance, you should start by looking at the eyepiece, not at the front end of the spotting scope.

Day by day, I feel myself longing ever more desperately for the open lands, the wild lands, the lakes, the rivers, the prairies, mountains and coastlines that are so much in my soul. The call of the wild has a hold on my heart that knows no limits. It is more than spring fever, more than just a casual need for a change of secenery. It is truly longing to go home, but for me home has no address or specifc location; home is any place that still has at least a breath of wild and free to it. It's that feeling that I belong somewhere else, that I am not being true to myself by living in this urban and suburban landscape. It's the feeling that I am paying a heavy price for distancing myself from a cold trout stream or a canoe campsite in the north woods or a dusty trail in the badlands. It's knowing that the wind is blowing wild and free across the prairies I love and I am not there to feel it. I shall weep for joy as much as I have wept for loss when I am finally home in the wild lands I love. Patience can be a cruel, but necessary, thing when you are separated from the lands you love.

Finally had a truly gorgeous Sunday this weekend, in terms of weather. Not much action on birds or birding with the birding binoculars or the spotting scope, though a friend who runs a route to rescue injured birds in downtown Chicago reports that she is still rescuing some migrating warblers who collide with the Chicago skyscrapers at night. Closer to home, I did get in some great jamming with another musician at a park close to home. We really rocked on some Pink Floyd. No doubt this was the first time our enthusiastic audience heard Pink Floyd done on a harmonica. What can I say? Have harmonica, will play anything.

My daughter received her Garmin Nuvi 255 and loves it. She is now ready to head into the heart of Kansas City and explore. I probably should have gotten something for myself, as I am the most directionally challenged person I know. I actually managed to get turned around, yesterday, in a local neighborhood I have biked several times. For sure, when the day finally comes that I leave the Chicago area, hopefully on a bicycle and head west, I will have a GPS. For sure, I will have to upgrade to a water resistant model for the bicycle, but not sure I need all the bells and whistles of the Garmin Edge 705. been thinking more along the liens of the Garmin Edge 605.