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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!Friday, April 30, 2010Telescope magnification Magnification has much less to do with astronomy than beginners think. It is only natural to assume that magnification is what telescopes are all about, of course, and the typical beginner proceeds from there when it comes time to buy a telescope. This is a fundamentally wrong approach, though, since amateur astronomy is mostly about seeing faint objects; the objects we amateurs observe are, for the most part, large enough. They are difficult to see because they are so faint, not because they are small. In other words, magnification is NOT a reliable way to choose a telescope and using too much magnification is the single biggest beginner mistake in astronomy. The higher the magnification, the more difficult it becomes to see faint objects and, just as importantly for the beginner, the harder the telescope becomes to use. Magnification is truly a double-edged sword. I learned this the hard way when I bought my telescope over four decades, ago. If you want to see fainter objects and therefore more objects, choose the largest telescope you can afford that has the features you want, not the one that advertises the most magnification. Beware of any and all manufacturer claims as to highest possible magnification. Such nonsense is all about selling telescopes and has nothing to do with what you will actually use when using a telescope. In other words, if you are buying your first telescope, think in terms of telescope size, not in terms of magnification. Yes, all else equal, buying a larger telescope does cost more, but when it comes to beginner telescopes, buying anything smaller than 80 mm means nearly always means you will need to buy another telescope if you decide to stay with astronomy. Thursday, April 29, 2010Bird colors Like most artistic types, I am addicted to color and patterns of colors. I suspect this is one of the many reasons I so enjoy watching birds, seeing wildflowers, rocks, minerals, sunsets and more. Of course, there are scientific reasons, primarily evolutionary reasons, for all those living colors in nature, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying them. Each and every color and even shades of the same color, all evoke a particular emotion in me; I live in a very varied emotional landscape, to be sure. Spring color in the bird world is all about breeding and mating; those males are strutting their stuff, puffing themselves up to be at their most noticeable and glorious best for their potential mates (sound familiar, gals?) Of course, that also makes it more fun for humans armed with birding binoculars and birding spotting scopes. Spring is the most colorful time of the year if you enjoy birdwatching or bird photography. The time to grab the binoculars, digital cameras and spotting scope and head out in the woods and fields is right now. I make a bike trip on the local trails, nearly every day. I do it for many reasons, not the least of which is some birding. This time of year, I tend to move slower and my constant stopping sometimes prompts other bikers to pull over and ask if I need help, but I just smile, thank them and explain that I am a birder. I sometimes tempted to say something like, “Hey, this is spring, where are your binoculars?” but most of my fellow bikers are out there doing their own thing, just as I am doing mine. Time to hit the trail. Temps, today, will reach the 60s. Wednesday, April 28, 2010RetirementBill and I have been thinking ahead to retirement and, like many couples in our position, we are thinking about relocating to a more rural setting to escape the crime, traffic, congestion, noise and all the other ills of big city living. At one time, living in the Chicago suburbs, I would have been overjoyed to move to any rural area just to escape the city, but, now that I have a choice in where we can live, the task is much more difficult. I had no idea how difficult. You see, I have become a bit greedy. I want to find the perfect home in the perfect setting. I don’t want to settle for a location that is less than perfect for birdwatching, astronomy, fishing (especially fly fishing), cross country skiing, canoeing, hiking, bicycling (both road and mountain bike) and photography (landscape and bird photography). I want the luxury of walking out my back door and disappearing into wild country. At the same time, though, I need a location that offers a lot in the way of music, so I can continue to play blues/rock/jazz/country on a regular basis and, of course, we want a location that offers good restaurants and some shopping. Whew! Rationally, I know very well I can’t have it all, but that doesn’t stop me from reading the fine print on maps for hours and hours a day and doing research on the internet. Maybe it’s the thought of not using my astronomy binoculars, birding binoculars, telescopes, skis, digital cameras, film cameras, canoe, bikes and so on to their full extent, though I suspect that I am using that as nothing more than an excuse to justify adding more equipment. Such are the devious workings of the rational mind. In my heart, though, I know that I already have the most important things in life - my Bill, my family, my music, my hobbies and I also know that Nature is ever with me. I know, that no matter where we decide to live, we will be happy. Anything else is simply window dressing. Tuesday, April 27, 2010Digiscoping shutter technique It’s no secret that I like to use a spotting scope and digital cameras to take pictures of birds. This combination is called digiscoping and it has become the most popular method of taking pics of birds for most of us birders, these days. Digiscoping has become so popular because it gives us access to more magnification than even the longest telephoto lenses with conventional camera equipment and also because digiscoping is so darn easy compared to using conventional equipment. Just point the spotting scope at a bird, center it in the field of view, hold a small digital point and shoot camera over the eyepiece (or use a digiscoping adapter to hold the camera) and fire away. Okay, it does take practice, just like any other type of photography, but anyone with a little patience and perseverance can take useable bird pics by digiscoping. There are little mini skills that will that will help, though. One of the most useful of these mini skills is good shutter technique. This is especially helpful when trying to take pics of constantly fidgeting and moving songbirds. If you slowly press the shutter as you were taught to do in photography class, a bird will not wait for you; the bird will bob its head and so on and you get either a blurred pic or a pose that you had not intended to photograph. The solution? You must quickly depress the shutter, but also quickly depress the shutter button with a minimum of movement imparted to the camera. Fast and smooth is the way it is done. You then watch the bird, get a sense of its movement pattern, anticipate when the bird will pose the way you want it to pose and fire instantly when the pose is what you want. Easy? You will get many shots that you don’t want, but if you stick with it, you will hit that shutter button at the very instant you get that perfect pose. Only took me a half dozen shots to get that Goldfinch, above. Monday, April 26, 2010Old shotguns People who have only known me in the last ten or fifteen years or so know me as a sometimes vegetarian, new age, tree-hugging old hippie chic, so it usually comes as a surprise to them to learn that there was a time when I did actually own guns and hunt and shoot. Yes, I really owned and used guns, right alongside cameras, spotting scopes, birding binoculars and telescopes in my younger days. Why not? I know many excellent birders who also hunt; I don't consider hunting and birding to be mutually exclusive. No, I don't hunt, anymore, and neither does Bill, but I'm not about to turn my back on hunters, either. After all, I still have relatives and friends that hunt and when I do occasionally eat meat, I much prefer wild game. So what's with the pic? It's amazing what you can find, sometimes, buried in the basement. This is Bill's old LC Smith shotgun from the days when he used to hunt ducks. That was a long time, ago, of course, back in the days when it was still legal to use lead shot. Bill and I have no plans to get back into hunting, but I can still appreciate a fine old gun, so I thought I would just tell you why. First, they really don't make guns like this, anymore. This LC Smith shotgun, as near as I can tell from the serial number, was made sometime around 1913. Guns like this didn't just roll off an assembly line, even in those days. These fine old double guns required a great deal of hand fitting by true craftsman, the best of the best. If you look at the pic, you can see how the wood and the metal are mated, together, perfectly. The materials just flow one into another and only the best materials were used. That kind of artistry is all but extinct in our high tech world. Then, too, the design is timeless; after nearly 100 years, the action is just as smooth and tight on this shotgun as the day it was made. Close the action, and it locks with real authority. To produce this level of craft, today, in any product, would be enormously expensive and that assumes that you could still find someone who had the skill. I also appreciate this old shotgun because it was made, one-hundred percent, in America. A piece, such as this, is a reminder of what we have lost in America. I am no old granny pining away for the good old days - I own and use technology of all kinds - but I deeply respect our traditions in this country and I can't help but grieve at what we have lost when I hold a bit of history in my hand like this old shotgun. We have no plans to use this old double gun, but we have no plans to sell it, either. Really doesn't matter what it is worth in terms of dollars; not to us. Just owning something from the day when America was a very different place is value enough. Friday, April 23, 2010Light pollution and the urban astronomerLight pollution is a fact of life for so many amateur astronomers, these days. Lucky, indeed, is the astronomer with access to a truly dark sky. So what’s our typical urban or suburban astronomer to do about this tragic and, so often needless, loss of our dark night skies? Is there life for a backyard urban astronomer? Yes, there is always some astronomy to be done even under the most light polluted night sky. For instance, light pollution is primarily a problem when trying to view faint star clusters, nebulae and galaxies. The key word here is faint; unless you are living in the core of a really large metropolitan area, any astronomy binocular or telescope will reveal some of the brighter examples of these objects. The really good news for urban astronomers is the moon and the brighter planets. These are not affected by light pollution. The moon is so large and bright that it can be seriously studied with either binoculars or telescopes, though you will need the magnifications provided by telescopes to see any detail on the planets. Astronomy binoculars simply don’t offer enough magnification for that kind of work. There are also ways to minimize light pollution. If you take a good look at your night sky, you may discover that light pollution may be much worse in one direction than others. It just depends on your location relative to the source of light pollution. It then becomes a simple matter of planning your observing sessions to capture the objects you wish to study when they are in one of the darker quadrants of your local sky. Sometimes the most damaging source of light pollution is right in your own backyard, so to speak. You can minimize a neighbor’s yard light, for instance, by politely explaining you are doing some astronomy or, better yet, invite them over to look through your telescope. For objects that you can’t turn off, such as street lights, simply you’re your telescope or astronomy binocular so that the offending light is blocked by a tree or other object. If that is not possible, try draping a towel over your head as you observe with your telescope or binocular. It may look silly, but you’ll be amazed at how well it works. Of course, you may want to warn your neighbors what you are doing. I’ve had fun explaining this and so will you. Get active and fight light pollution - push for sensible lighting regulations, join an astronomy club, go public to present your case - but, in the meantime, do not let this technological evil rob you of your astronomy. If you stop observing because of light pollution, the war is lost and you and the next generation of amateur astronomers are the victims. Thursday, April 22, 2010APO refractor telescopes Are APO refractor telescopes the perfect telescope design? No, there is really no such thing as the perfect telescope design or even the best design - every design has its good and bad points - though some diehard refractor fans might argue the point. APO, by the way, is short-hand for apochromatic. This simply means that APO refractors use a special optical system or optical components to combat the number one shortcoming of standard refractor telescopes, namely that color fringing that appears around objects in bright light. That color fringing, called chromatic aberration, robs you of valuable resolution and optical performance. Why don’t all refractor telescopes use the APO refractor design? Price, it's all about price. Making an APO refractor is very expensive compared to standard refractor or, for that matter, other telescope designs. In fact, inch for inch, an APO refractor is the most expensive telescope design. That inch for inch qualifier is literally very important in the world of telescopes, too, because telescope size, in terms of the diameter of the main lens or mirror, is the primary factor in telescope performance. While ten inch reflector telescopes are common, a ten inch standard refractor, let alone a 10 inch APO refractor, is not something you will find in the hands of an amateur astronomer. So, we APO refractor fans have to settle for a smaller telescope. That’s okay, though, because we are rewarded with some of the best quality images that can be obtained in a telescope. We may not see as much as the folks with big telescopes, but what we can see, we see very well, indeed. Stars in an APO refractor are pinpoint crisp against an inky black background. That is enough to make any amateur astronomer’s mouth water and that's why we are willing to pay the price for an APO refractor telescope, such as a Televue or, as in my baby, a custom LOMO design. Wednesday, April 21, 2010Film vs digital, again? As a photographer who cut her photographic teeth on film cameras and high-end film cameras, at that, I still find it to be a bit miraculous that I use and carry digital cameras as much as I do. I could supply a dozen instances where a good film camera is still the better camera to use (and I probably have in other posts), but there is no arguing with the fact that I grab one of my digital cameras nearly every time I head out the door and I suspect it goes deeper than the advantage of digital camera features, though there is no denying that is a factor. Image stabilization, for instance, allows me to leave the tripods at home and that is a miracle in itself. I suspect that the medium we use, these days, has as much to do with the reign of digital cameras as much as anything. In the old film days, you collected your slides and viewed them with a projector and, when you really wanted to inflict pain on your loved ones, you made them sit through a slide show. Collecting prints and filing them, away, in albums to view was perhaps a less painful option. Now, of course, we are more likely to just turn on the computer and breeze though our “pics”, quickly and easily. It is more convenient than digging out boxes of slides or stacks of photo albums, though I don’t think it is necessarily a better way to enjoy the fruits of our photographic labors. I still love film prints; they are something I can hold in my hand and touch. Yeah, I know I can always print out my digital pics, but to turn a digital pic into something you can hold in your hand is expensive and time consuming and, even then, I have not been satisfied with the results. I may not pull those old prints off the shelf that often, these days, but they do give me more pleasure than viewing pics on a computer screen. So call me old-fashioned. About the pic: My two sweethearts - husband Bill and out dog, Roscoe on our evening bike ride. Tuesday, April 20, 2010Small telescopes I’ve been having fun with my small telescope, this last week. The weather and the moon have been cooperating to give me relatively dark skies, so I have been putting the small refractor telescope to work on open clusters, for the most part, though I have taken a crack at some galaxies. The suburban, light polluted skies of Milwaukee, though, are not friendly when it comes to hunting galaxies. Open clusters, on the other hand, are much less affected by light pollution and if your small telescope has fine optics, as does my small telescope, open star clusters are truly things of beauty. Like so many other astronomers, these days, a small telescope is the right telescope for me. After making dinner, doing the dishes, making lunches for the next day, visiting with my husband, I am lucky to snatch an hour to do some astronomy. There simply is no time in my routine to deal with large aperture telescopes, either in terms of all the assembly, transport, disassembly, involved, not to mention the cool down time required when the weather is cold. With my small telescope, I can lift it, mount, tripod and all and just carry outside and be observing in a matter of minutes. When my observing is over for the night, back in the house it goes, just as quickly. I suspect that when we move to a more rural location, I will own and use a large telescope, as I often have in the past. For now, though, a small telescope is a better fit for me. After all is said and done about choosing a telescope, the telescope you use the most is the best telescope for you. Monday, April 19, 2010Home, away from home  To me, Violets are one of my favorite signs of spring. They seem to pop up out of nowhere along the trails and make me smile as I pedal on my way. Other things that start to pop up, here in Wisconsin, come spring are campers, specifically, pop up campers. (Okay, that was a corny segue, but I'm in a corny mood, this morning.)
Bill and I bought our camper, late last winter and only now have had the opportunity to pop it up and see how it all works. It made for an interesting Sunday evening, for sure. Overall, for not having an instruction manual, I'd say we did pretty good. Only thing we forgot to do is drop the rear stabilizers before we tried the rear bed out for fit. The camper tilted back and, for a moment, I thought we might slide out the back, but we quickly moved aft, so no damage done and we got a good chuckle. One of my concerns has been just how much gear I can pack in the camper and, I am happy to report, that there should be enough room for my small telescope or my spotting scope and tripods, so it's going to be "have telescope, will travel" for this girl. The binoculars and digital cameras will stay in the vehicle, up front with us, where they will be handy as we head down the road. Our home, away from home, is just about ready and I am about to burst with wanderlust. I'm a born wanderer and, now that I have my soulmate, the horizon beckons. A camping we will go! Friday, April 16, 2010Film vs digital cameras The film vs digital cameras debate is well known, much discussed and, for most people, yesterday’s news. I won't hash it out, here, but, which is better, film or digital? The answer, of course, is that there is no best; it just depends on your needs as a photographer, but mostly it is a matter of your personal preferences and tastes. Which type of camera do I own? I own and use both film cameras and digital cameras and would feel deprived if I didn’t have both. These days, of course, most people buy digital cameras and use digital cameras. I understand that; I spend more hours with my digital cameras than my film cameras, since it is just too darn hard to pass up the convenience of using a digital camera and also because digiscoping has replaced much of my film gear for wildlife photography . However, I think every digital photographer could learn a lot about photography by using film cameras, specifically the old manual focus SLR film cameras. Those old film SLRs will teach you a lot about the basics – focusing, framing, metering, ISO choice and all the other camera features that many digital photographers take for granted. That “sink or swim” mandate when using old manual focus film cameras will make you more conscious and more careful when taking pictures. You literally pay for your mistakes with film and that is not necessarily a bad thing. Many more years, ago, than I care to admit, I decided I wanted to become a serious photographer, but there was very little in the budget for serious camera gear. In steps my brother-in-law who was a professional commercial photographer. He handed me a well worn Pentax SP that had a non-functioning light meter. For those of you who don’t know old cameras, the SP was a screw mount lens camera form the 60s. Bayonet lens mounts were just making their appearance in the SP’s heyday. Since the light meter didn’t work, my brother-in-law also provided me with a handheld light meter. Lastly, he simply told me to do my homework as how to use a camera, and then head out into the field and start taking pictures. If I could take good pictures with a all manual camera with a broken light meter, he said, I had learned all the basics and could claim to be a good photographer. I did just that and after many hundreds of mistakes, I did understand what it took to get a good photograph in a very hands on way. It was hard lesson, but a lesson that serves me well to this day. Given that you can find a lot old film SLR cameras on the market for next to nothing in cost, anyone can learn the basics in much the same way. Wednesday, April 14, 2010Forever young I’m a musician (a professional harmonica player) and I have been most of my life. Playing music is like so many of the other things I do – birdwatching, astronomy, photography, hiking, biking, skiing – that I don’t see how I could live without it. I currently work in two bands and I also teach harmonica out of my home, here in Milwaukee. That’s me in the pic (compliments of my biggest fan, my husband, Bill), last night, playing some rock, though I am just as comfortable and at home playing blues, country, bluegrass, folk or jazz and have played in all of those types of bands for many, many years. For me, playing in a band is more than just the music; it’s about being with my friends and band mates and having a good time. There’s nothing quite so comforting, either, than having your husband out in the audience cheering you on. I am so blessed. The morning after a gig, I am always a bit tired, but oh so satisfied and ready to go. Age really hasn’t slowed me down, much, and for that I am ever grateful. The day may come when my binoculars, telescopes and digital cameras start to collect dust, but not if I have anything to say about it. Today, for instance, the weather is supposed to be warm and summer-like, so I will grab my birding binoculars and my digital cameras and hit the bike trail. See you, there. Tuesday, April 13, 2010Camping gearAs a rule, I am not a person who collects a lot of equipment, though anyone who reads this blog may have a hard time believing that. It’s true, just the same; I tend to travel light and if I haven’t used something on a regular basis, I tend to sell it. At the moment, however, I can’t think of anything I own that I haven’t used on a regular basis. My binoculars, telescopes, telescope accessories, film cameras, digital cameras and spotting scopes see some use on a weekly basis. For sure, I don’t sit around collecting dust and neither does my equipment. There will be some more equipment in my future, even so. Bill and I will be doing a lot of camping, this year, and we have already begun to collect more needed camping equipment and I know enough not to waste money on cheap camping gear. I’ve made that mistake back in my younger years. Nothing worse than sore feet from wearing the wrong boots, a cold night’s sleep from using a cheap sleeping bag or trying to stay dry in a leaky tent. My biggest pet peeve when it comes to camping equipment, though, is a cheap flashlight that fails when you need it the most. Stumbling around in the dark in unfamiliar country is not fun. Monday, April 12, 2010Cameras for flowers  Each day brings some new flowers in our yard. What a delight! I knew Bill loved gardening, but, I didn’t know much until these past few weeks. In fact, I didn’t even know Bill last spring - we only got married last fall – but what a wonderful thing to learn .about the man I love and married and what a wonderful way to learn it. Some men bring their wives flowers from the store (Bill does, too), but how many husbands surprise their wives with flowers every morning in the spring? Can I pick them or what? Flowers have always been a favorite subject of mine when I have a camera in my hands. These days, I most often use digital cameras and small digital, point and shoot type cameras at that. Small digital cameras, like the Canon Powershots are so darn convenient, it’s hard not to carry one and that translates into more pics. Small digital cameras do just fine for flowers and wild flowers, since I rarely print and enlarge. Really, how much resolution do you need when you look at pics on a computer screen? When I do print and enlarge, though, I still much prefer the old 35 mm film cameras. When it comes to serious shooting, give me a great film SLR camera like my Nikon F3HP and a top notch macro lens, any day. It’s kind of like eliminating the middle man; film is already a high resolution print medium, so forget the printer and all the hassles of converting digital to something you can hang on the wall. Still nothing like a good photo taken with film cameras in my book when it comes to something you want to frame and hang on the wall. Long live film. Friday, April 09, 2010Spring bird colors  When we think of spring, we naturally think of green, but there are many other colors to spring. In birds, spring is the start of the breeding season and that means most birds are in the process of acquiring their colorful best plumage. Those spring colors in birds make birdwatching not only more enjoyable, but also a bit easier, compared to fall birding, where we have to separate out juvenile birds from the adults. Spring is also the ideal time to grab the spotting scope, digital cameras, tripod and do some digiscoping – taking pics through the eyepiece of a spotting scope with small digital cameras. Those colors make for some great bird pics. Of course, birds vary widely as to the this color thing. For sure, some birds, as in the White-Breasted Nuthatch in my pic, above right, do not change color by the season, but, in general, most birds will be at their color best at this time of year, even if it is only a matter of changing worn, dull feathers for brighter, newer feathers. Other birds, such as the male American Goldfinch, in my pic, above left, do change their dull winter coat for a much brighter yellow breeding coat in the spring. In a few weeks, this will the much brighter and more striking yellow bird we all know and love. I'll ask him to come back and pose, again. Thursday, April 08, 2010Spring feverOur April showers turned into some April snowflakes, over night, but, hey, this is Wisconsin, after all. Nothing serious, though, and the sun is shining, at least for the moment, so spring just nodded off for a bit. Warmer days are on the way. Right? The birds think it is spring and that is good enough for me. I still have most of my usual winter birds at the feeders – Juncos, White-throated Sparrows, Chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatches, Cardinals and, of course, all my woodpecker friends. Spring is on the way, though and the proof of that is the birds that are joining the mix, namely some Red-winged Blackbirds, a lone Brewer’s Blackbird, a Fox Sparrow, this morning, some Chipping Sparrows and … well, the list grows by day and my birding binoculars, on my kitchen table, are getting plenty of use, not to mention my spotting scope and digital cameras. The Goldfinches are also showing more yellow than ever and on warm days, when I leave the door open, I can hear Song Sparrows out in the woods, the frogs are making a delightful racket on warm days and Cardinals are singing from all sides. Who needs a calendar with all this activity? I’m not sure if there is a scientific or biological basis to “spring fever”. I also suspect it means different things to different people, but, for me, spring fever is very real. The arrival of spring stirs something so very deep, inside and it colors everything I do and think. I can’t dissect it and analyze it, but it is there, every spring, just waiting to blossom like the flowers. Hope it is that way for you, too. Wednesday, April 07, 2010Digital cameras for wildflowers April showers bring …. Hey, who wants to wait until May? We have daffodils in our yard that have their own ideas about when to bloom, so I had to grab one of our digital cameras and have at it. As you can see from the pic, digital point and shoot cameras do a respectable job on flowers and wildflowers. I have been using these little digital cameras for the past six years for wildflower work and have had no complaints. This one was taken with our Sony Cyber-Shot 1080HD. No, digital point and shoot cameras don’t do as good a job as a full size DSLR, such as the Canon 5D with and a good Canon macro lens; DSLRs with the right lenses are still the way to go if you want to enlarge and hang on the wall, but how many of us really enlarge and print, anyway? Let’s face it, most of us leave our pics in our photo library and call it good. Those pics taken with small digital cameras are still more than sharp enough for viewing on a computer screen and emailing to our friends. Best of all, you can take small digital cameras with out on the trail you as you jog, hike, or bike and you’ll hardly know a camera is there, but you will be ready when you spot a new flower that has just bloomed. No need for tripods, either, as most digital point and shoot cameras now offer image stabilization. Wildflower photography has never been so easy. What special features do you need in a digital point and shoot camera for wildflowers? The only feature I would check for is a macro mode so that you can get up close and fill that frame with an individual blossom, but this is hardly a problem as nearly all digital point and shoot cameras have a macro mode, even an inexpensive camera such as the Canon Powershot A480 have a macro mode. It is almost a standard feature on digital point and shoot camera’s these days. Pixels? Forget pixel and MP counts; in the end those numbers don’t translate into anything significant. More important, as always, is lens quality and the good news is that any major brand name digital camera, these days, will have a respectable lens. Tuesday, April 06, 2010Dark skies for my binoculars and telescopesFrom the standpoint of astronomy, I rated the skies in suburban St. Paul to be on a par with the skies, here, in my suburban Milwaukee location. No big surprise, there, but it did get me thinking about how widespread light pollution has become and it also reminded me to add a dark sky to the list of “must haves” in a place for Bill and I to retire, should we choose to pull up stakes in Milwaukee. No way am I going to go to all the trouble of relocating and not be able to make better use of my astronomical binoculars and telescopes. Have to admit, though, that the suburbs of St. Paul offered an excellent system of trails and opportunities for wildlife photography. If I lived, there, my digital cameras would get a workout and so would my bird watching binoculars and birding spotting scopes. There are lakes and marshes, everywhere and folks in that area have done a great job of protecting these valuable resources. If I had to be trapped in a big city, St. Paul and its suburbs would be a good choice. So where will we retire? That remains to be seen, but we will have a lot of fun looking and scouting, this summer, as we tour the west and the north country. I doubt any one place will cover our ever growing list of “must haves”, but, after so many years of big city life putting the hurt on my astronomy binoculars and telescopes, I am not going to settle for any more badly light polluted skies. I’ve had enough. Monday, April 05, 2010Easter weekendHad a wonderful visit to the St. Paul, Minnesota suburb of Shoreview, over the Easter weekend. Bill and I made the five plus hour trip in good time, despite some construction and delays on I-94. I very much enjoyed the scenery in the area of Eau Claire; it gave me a taste of the north country I so love. For sure, there was no question that I was in Wisconsin/Minnesota, either. Their were boats and boat trailers, everywhere, not to mention snowmobile shops and tackle stores. Even gas stations sell fishing tackle in this country. With two new grandkids to get to know, there wasn’t enough time for scenery pics or much time for birdwatching, either, but I did get to learn more children’s games than I care to admit. However, there was some time for some biking along the excellent system of trails in the Shoreview area and I was quite impressed with the obvious concern for the environment and habitat that I saw. There were bluebird houses, everywhere, and, better yet, plenty of bluebirds. Did not get close enough for some pics with the digital cameras, but they were magnificent in my Leica Ultravid 10x25, as were the many other suburban birds I saw. That's why I always carry compact binoculars on all my outings. Also started to hear the frogs. If you’ve never been in the north country, the annual start of the spring frog concert is part of the culture something akin to ice going out on all the lakes. It may sound a bit raucous to an outsider, but to someone raised in the north country, it is the surest sound that spring has arrived and something that brings a smile to everyone’s face. Friday, April 02, 2010Spotting scope eyepiecesWhen buying a spotting scope, most folks tend to think of the objective (front) lens when they are thinking optics. Objective size, quality, type of glass used, lens coatings and so on do contribute to the overall performance of the spotting scope, no doubt about it, but that objective lens is not the only factor in spotting scope performance. In my opinion, the spotting scope eyepiece is just as important as the objective lens in a spotting scope. In fact, it could even be more important. Zoom eyepieces are the norm, these days, on spotting scopes and, rightfully so. A zoom eyepiece is not only the most convenient eyepiece to use with a spotting scope, it is also the most versatile. Just twist the magnification up and down as needed, quickly and easily. Not all zoom eyepieces are equal, however. There is a veritable canyon of difference between a cheap zoom eyepiece and a premium zoom eyepiece on the other side. A spotting scope zoom eyepiece is a complex piece of equipment and to make it right is not cheap. In fact, a premium spotting scope eyepiece, such as the Swarovski 25-50 zoom eyepiece, alone, can cost more than even a mid-priced spotting scope with eyepiece, together. Is it worth it? I definitely think so. I have seen more than my share of otherwise good spotting scopes crippled by a poor zoom eyepiece and, unfortunately, you are usually stuck with the zoom that comes with the spotting scope on nearly all cheap and even moderately priced spotting scopes, because spotting scope eyepieces, unlike telescope eyepieces, are only rarely interchangeable between brands and models. This means that if you want the best in a spotting scope eyepiece, you will have to pay the price and buy a premium grade spotting scope. Thursday, April 01, 2010What is a spotting scope? What is a spotting scope? A spotting scope is actually a small telescope that is designed to be used by day and, in telescope lingo, most spotting scopes are actually small refractor telescopes, such as the one in the pic. The distinction is, to some extent, how we use these two optics – we use spotting scopes by day; we use telescopes at night for astronomy. However, there is some overlap as to how you can use these two instruments. I have used small refractor telescopes by day and I have used spotting scopes for some limited astronomy. There are some technical differences as to how a small refractor telescope and a spotting scope are packaged, though. Spotting scopes tend to have an inverting prism built into the body, since you always want upright images for day use and most spotting scopes are a closed tube design; they are sealed against moisture and dust since spotting scopes are often used in inclement and harsh conditions. Spotting scopes also tend to be lighter than telescopes, since we will often be carrying these out in the field, sometimes for long distances and many hours. Refracting telescopes tend to have an open tube construction, since we won’t be doing astronomy in the rain and you add image-erecting prisms and other telescope accessories as needed. After all, when we are looking at astronomical objects, we really don’t care if the image is upside down. Refractor telescopes also tend to be a bit heavier than a spotting scope, since we won’t be carrying these much farther than the backyard. My 80mm refractor, for instance, tips the scale at 8 pounds, including the eyepiece. That is truly a tank compared to the typical 3 to 4 pounds for the typical 80mm spotting scope. About the pic: This is a one-of-a-kind small refractor telescope that does double duty as a spotting scope - as long as I don't have to carry it too far! |
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